Watch These 62 Minutes If You Need to Make Money in the Next 24 Months | Live Your Legacy Keynote

Presentation Appreciation

First and foremost, I’m always flying in and out on these things, so I don’t get to see a ton of presentations, but I catch a whole bunch kinda little something here and there. I just wanna clap up the last one one more time, ’cause I thought that was phenomenal. (applause) I was sitting up there and I was listening, I’m trying to always maximize work, so sitting there working, and all the sessions were really good, I was actually able to get a bunch in today, which made it fun, but that was really good, I was really like feeling it. And I was like, this is really good, I was like listening, I was like, I believe in all that shit, I believe in every word that you just spit. But then you got into the Michael Jordan part. (audience laughter) And I was like, fuck Jason. (audience laughter) ‘Cause I’m a die-hard Knicks fan and I fucking hate Michael Jordan. (audience laughter) Period. Oh, man, that sucked. And I’m a Jets fan, I got Tom Brady, I’m fucking miserable about sports.

Q&A Invitation

Look. I wanna really take advantage of this format. This is a fairly small group, and we’re really tight in here, and this is just like how I love it. And so, to be very honest, I’ll spit a little bit here, but I’d love to do a little bit of Q&A. I’m not sure how set up they are for it, but I don’t even need the mic, so I’ll repeat the questions.

Internet’s Impact

So I think, you know, the beauty of technology is that so many of my current thoughts are on YouTube and Facebook right now, especially if any of you have consumed any of it, I don’t need to repeat the themes. I think they’re basic. I think, at some level, everybody has touched on it. You know, I think the thing that I’m most interested in is the notion of taking it, right? To me, the most interesting thing to me is the Internet. I think we grossly underestimate the Internet. You know, the Internet itself is ultimately the thing that gives us an opportunity to solve the thing that I think is really in our hearts and we’re passionate about. I associate so much with so many, because you know, my story is, I was born in Belarus, I came to the US when I was three, I lived in a studio apartment the size of the stage I’m on right now with seven family members. And so, no matter what you look like, as we all know, it’s about what you live, where you come from.

Self-Awareness and Success

And to be very frank, I’ll be very, I just, it’s interesting, I see this all the time and I’m empathetic that the system doesn’t put everybody in the best position to succeed, but I’m a product where I think all my struggles have been my biggest advantage. And really, I didn’t grow up in an education system or VC system that rewarded me for being a white male, I grew up in a very interesting path, I was a terrible fucking student, I was a D and F student, so like most immigrants, I didn’t use education as my way out, I was just a kid that sold shit. Right, like I just sold flowers and I sold lemonade. Now, I’m Jewish and I sang Christmas carols like fucking it was my last song. (audience laughter)

Self-Awareness is Key

What I did, and really, what I would love to leave you here with, like I know the real answer ’cause I’ve seen it in so many people’s eyes, it’s self-awareness. My biggest fear in this room is that you’re trying to be somebody because you want to be them versus you figure yourself out and put yourself in a position to be that person. I think, what you had when I watched what you were just talking about, like that kid was that kid from the get. He was self-aware, he figured himself out. He was comfortable in that nerdy environment, I was comfortable in high school working every minute, every second, and missing every party. And like, I just, I have not heard a voice in own my head but mine for a very very very long time.

Internet’s Impact Continued

And I think what is most interesting to me right now is, if you really pay attention to what’s happening, the Internet has absolutely done this incredible thing, which is there’s nobody who’s flawed that can sit in between you and the end consumer who’s stopping you besides the narrative in your own head. That’s a big deal. Like, you know, obviously, a lot of people growing up in the music industry, it’s just so different now.

Opportunities of the Internet

Like, just fucking go make it, like producing a song now with technology and putting it on SoundCloud, production and distribution. Like, that’s some shit you couldn’t have even imagined. And so I just think, I’ll be very honest, I think we’re living through the greatest time to be a human ever, I do. We’ve got problems everywhere, we got genocide in the world, we’ve got nothing but unlimited problems. But I put things into perspective, like I don’t know. We got plenty of problems, but the black plague was worse. Right? We got plenty of problems, but World War II was worse. Like you know, there’s just opportunity because of the Internet, not because we’ve evolved, I don’t put this on us. Like, we’ve still got plenty of short, but the fact that we have so much opportunity. And so to me, it’s basic. Either you’re dwelling and looking backward, or you’re optimistic and looking forward. The problem is, you grow up in an environment, you grow up with parents that put you on the defense or the offense. And that is really the lottery. The lottery really is who’s your mom, right. The lottery is who’s your best friend. That’s the lottery I think a lot about. And so I look at, I have unlimited white male friends who have tons of fucking money in the bank who fucking lost, who suck, who are in depression ’cause they got the wrong lottery ’cause their mom’s broken ’cause her mom was broken and ’cause her dad was broken. And so I am the byproduct, against all the odds that I had, of parents that fucking dominated. Like, my mom is all time. Just all time, she is. And so, even when I was getting Ds and Fs and all the other immigrant families were making fun of her because her son wasn’t gonna make it ’cause you had to get As and Bs ’cause that’s all we knew in the 80s and 90s, she knew who I was, she let me hone my skills. I’d get Ds and Fs, I’d get punished, but I was still allowed to go do my baseball card shows ’cause I was building my skill, building my skill. And they taught me work. They taught me work. I didn’t see my dad until I was 15, and he made me work in his liquor store even though we slept in the same house every night, because he’d left before I woke up and he came after. And so we live in this world now where the fact of the matter is, your Instagram account, your YouTube account, your SoundCloud account, the Internet. Like, the fact that, let me tell you something that fascinates me. Because we think a lot about money and opportunity, let me tell you about an opportunity that I can’t get out of my head. Which is, there’s a website called Craigslist. There’s a section called Free where people list shit that they wanna get rid of. You go there and you take it. And then you list it on Facebook Marketplace and you sell it. And when I think about this, I’ve been dreaming about this for the last 72 hours, by the way. I’m literally doing this selfishly so (mumbles) captures this ’cause this video is going out.

The Value of Education and Work Ethic

You know, it’s crazy to me that the only thing that stops somebody from winning is education and the work ethic, right. I understand that. But education comes in so many different forms. I was on The Breakfast Club the first time, and Envy thought I was a motivational speaker, like a bullshit rah rah, kind of like the secret shit. So he kinda called me out and I was like fuck. You know, it was like. (audience laughter) He’s like, you know, you’re lying on the radio, and he was like, “Give us something practical, “fuck this mindset shit,” right, I’m like okay, the mindset’s the game, but fuck it, I’ll give it you. And I said, “Go to the dollar store and go to Marshalls, “take your phone, scan shit, look it up on Ebay, “and if it costs two dollars on Marshalls “and it’s selling for nine dollars on Ebay, “buy it and sell it.” And that was, it was kinda like this moment in a six minute radio spot. And then it caught a little, like, then I read all the comments, and people are like bullshit, or yes. Then I started getting emails like yo, I make $500 a week, but I’m making 200 now ’cause I’m going to dollar store and selling it on Ebay. And it built in this whole thing. And then I’ve named it the 2017 flip challenge. And we have 10,000 emails of people who’ve literally went garage selling to the thrift store and the dollar store and have made 20, 30, 40,000. I started thinking about the long tail, the long tail of all this, right. Like, we’re in this, especially like in this incubator, like 99% of startups are gonna fail in this generation because we’re living through the greatest era of fake entrepreneurship. The amount of fake entrepreneurs that are in this building right now is extraordinary. (audience laughter) It’s true, it’s true. And by the way, please, I know a lot of you don’t know me, I’m not sitting on a high horse like I’m a good entrepreneur and you’re not. It’s just black and white obvious ’cause it’s a bubble ’cause it got cool, right, it got cool. And it doesn’t cost anything, and there’s so much money in the system, there’s so much incubators willing to give you money. All my friends for the last 10-15 years are building all these businesses where it’s really not that hard to lose money every month, right. I think on you panel, you guys said, as entrepreneurs, you know, losing money and then making money or building, I couldn’t catch the whole thing ’cause I was distracted. The problem is, it takes a lot of talent to build something to then eventually make money. And we spend 99% of our time talking about fucking Slack and Uber and Snapchat and fucking Instagram. We got like 17 companies to talk about and there’s 17 fucking companies going out of business every hour, every minute, and meanwhile, there’s more money being pumped into the system. And it’s just all so obvious right now, where this is all going, and it’s not very privy because we’re lacking self-awareness. What we’re doing is we’re just riding the waves of what the current conversation is. There’s so many people that are gonna be founders of companies who would’ve done incredibly well being number 17 at this startup or number 94 at that company or number 167 at that company, but they wanna be number one of the Uber of pancakes, right. And like so, and I’m watching this and I’m fascinated by it. Meanwhile, meanwhile, there’s so much practicality. Let me tell you what breaks my heart. I read a lot of feedback from my audience. I’ve gotten two examples in the last three weeks of kids that were making money on retail arbitrage, right. So I think, I brought up already the Craigslist to Facebook Marketplace. I think no question, if you said to me hey, this is a classroom of 16 year olds and they have to make money in the next 24 months or bad, bad stuff happens, I only default into go buy shit.

The Value of Education and Work Ethic (Contd.)

and email marketing. And so I started my own agency, I started creating content. I was an original user of Facebook and Twitter and all these things. I actually gave the opening keynote at the first Twitter conference. It was in San Francisco, and I flew there and I went on stage, and I talked about how it was gonna be the new telephone. And it was so right that at that time nobody even thought it was possible. They were all like, “What do you mean?” And I was like, “You’re gonna use this to talk to your customers.” And I’m talking like 2007, it was like early. It was early, but I was right, I was right. I built VaynerMedia, it’s a $200 million dollar a year business, it’s got 1,000 employees, it’s one of the hottest agencies in the world. But all I do is put out content on the Internet. I’m on every platform. I started a YouTube show, I’m doing this. My life is about putting out content on the Internet. Why? Because I’m good at it and I like it, I love it. And here’s what it’s done for me, it’s made me practical. Everything I just talked to you about, that I think is the biggest opportunities for you, have all been predicated on practicality. It’s not cool to go from being a millionaire to being broke because you tried to make an app, that you thought was gonna be a unicorn. It is practical to build a life on practicality. And so I sit here today for free for two reasons, one, ’cause I really love my audience and two, because I’m a very very very good businessman. ‘Cause I’m gonna turn the favor back on all of you when I’m one day asking you for something, which is a very good reason to do something for free. Because I’m gonna buy something for two dollars on Marshalls and sell it for 14 on eBay, and when I need to, I’m gonna call you and I’m gonna ask you to buy something from me. And so that’s why I’m so proud to do this, and that’s why I’m giving you the truth, because I think it’s so right and it’s never been more practical than right now to build something that makes you an extra $20,000 a year talking about sports cards, or sneakers, or Game of Thrones, or anything. Anything. And I’m gonna use this time to make sure that you understand that. That’s why I always talk about the I can’t breathe t-shirt story. It’s a very important story. I was in the locker room with my New York Jets in 2007, they were going into Foxborough to play the undefeated New England Patriots. I went to Reebok, I’m sitting there, and I go to Reebok, the Jets gave me two tickets, and I was in the locker room, and I went to Reebok, the license of the NFL, and I said, “Hey, can you make me custom Jets t-shirts? I wanna make t-shirts that say I can’t breathe, but with a Jets logo.” Reebok said no, because the NFL is a sponsor, and I said, “Okay, what if I buy 10,000 Jets t-shirts from you, can you print it on there?” And Reebok said yes, so I ordered 10,000 Jets t-shirts. That weekend, I went to eBay and I bought all the real estate for I can’t breathe, and I started selling them for $10.99 on eBay. And on Monday morning, I sold out, and I went to the eBay buyer, and I was the seller, and I said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any more t-shirts.” And they all got upset, and I was getting hate, and I said, “It’s okay, because all the money, I just want you to know, all the money is going to the Eric Garner family foundation.” And everybody said, “Oh, okay, that’s good.” And then all of a sudden, I got really busy, and I didn’t have time to print anymore t-shirts, and so I went to eBay, and I canceled the order, and I refunded all the money. And now, all the people that bought that t-shirt for $10.99 are selling it for $700. Because if you go to eBay, and you type in I can’t breathe Jets t-shirt, you can’t find it. So I used the 10,000 Jets t-shirts as a Trojan horse to buy all the real estate on the word I can’t breathe, so that nobody else could sell them. I used it as an attention-grabbing tool to make people believe it was for sale. And then I didn’t actually sell it to them, I used it to bring attention to a good cause. And I did it because I knew it was practical, because I’m a businessman. I’m not interested in you reading my book, I’m not interested in you buying my sneakers, I’m not interested in any of that. I’m interested in you understanding how much opportunity there is for you right now in the practical world of buying and selling shit on the internet, and that’s what I’m here to talk to you about today. So thank you. (audience applause)

The Practicality of Making Money Online

Now, you’re sitting there, and you’re like, okay, I’ve got $60. I go back to Craigslist. I find a couch, I put it in the back of my car. I sell it on Facebook for $120, now I’ve got $180. It’s practical, and it’s real. But if you’re sitting there, and you’re like, I’m gonna make an app that’s gonna be the next big thing, and you’re just waiting for your ship to come in, you’re gonna fucking lose. You’re gonna fucking lose. And I just really need people to start understanding this. Because I’m sure everybody here has read or heard the cliche that’s said by so many entrepreneurs, which is, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. Yet, when you listen to people talk, they’re acting the other way. They’re acting like it’s about the destination. And so I really really really wanna use this opportunity to have this conversation, because there’s so many people here that can do so much with practicality, but they’re just chasing, and they’re so unhappy. And so I want people to be happy, and I want people to have opportunity, and I want people to be practical. And so, before we go into Q&A, I really just need people to understand, the practicality of actually building a business, versus the impracticality of waiting to be the founder of the next Uber, or Snapchat, or whatever else you think is coming next. Because it’s just not gonna happen for the majority of people, and I know it, and it’s okay, but the internet is practical, and it’s real, and it’s in front of us, and it’s fucking big. Thank you. (audience applause)

Gary Vaynerchuk Q&A Session

where it’s creator platform. Like, even my shit, you know, like all these guys, you know, Patreon, everybody, it’s just a lot of people that got a lot of followers there that can’t really drive the money.

• [Male Speaker] Right, so I agree, I think you build it, they will come, and we are gonna build it. We have some creators in the pipeline that are coming.
• So let’s talk about that. So how do you, how are you getting people to come? Are you paying them to come? – [Male Speaker] Correct. We’re paying some influencers right now to join our platform and use it, and then they’ll launch with us. – And what do you think that’ll do?
• [Male Speaker] So what’ll do, it’s the network effect, so basically the more influencers that are on the platform, the more people that will come. So it’s almost like this, I was explaining it to somebody the other day. It’s almost like a game of thrones, so you’ve got like seven of the top influencers on the platform. They’re incentivized to be on the platform because the more people that are on the platform, the more people that will follow them. – I understand that. And that’s the same with all these, that’s how Vine grew. That’s how all these things have grown. The problem is, it’s the same people playing the game. And so like, you know, there’s not a lot of depth. You know, I think that’s my thing, I think your app’s worth, you know, going to South by Southwest and launching and testing it out. I think the biggest vulnerability of the app is what everybody’s done, you know, in a world where everybody’s doing something, you know, it becomes very hard. Like, my big thing is, you know, I laugh about all these platforms, and I’d be really happy to be wrong, by the way, but I would love to understand how you’re gonna break through the noise. And that’s always the hardest part, the noise. You know, everybody’s attention is the variable, right, that everybody wants, and it’s just really hard. It’s just hard. It’s super hard. – [Male Speaker] So what advice would you give to get people’s attention? – I think you have to take a step back and think about the macro, not the micro. So what’s really happening is, you know, when you go down these paths, you know, you gotta realize like, where’s the attention? Who’s the person? Why are they on Snapchat or TikTok or Instagram or whatever the fuck else, right? You know, there’s just so much content, it’s just so hard. – [Male Speaker] Right, so the quality, the content. – It’s not about quality, it’s about being the most contextual. So right now, if I was starting all over again, the thing that would work for me, I would start a podcast called “50 Year Old Billionaires.” And what I would do is I would go reach out to 50 year olds that are super fucking cool. – [Male Speaker] Right, and why? – I would start a show where every episode, I would bring one of them in, and I would break down the shit. I would give them my platform to tell stories. And I would use their equity to make that show go from 500 listeners to 5,000 listeners, to 50,000 listeners, and then I would wake up and I would have people listening to me because I put out a lot of value to other people. It’s super hard, like, nobody’s gonna listen to the 9,000th podcast on fucking Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Nobody’s gonna listen to the 4,000th influencer platform, so I think there’s something to be said about going old school and really understanding, you know, 2010 is when I was on top of social media, the first eight months, ’cause it was new, right? And then I did an interview every day. I did an interview, I was on every podcast. I was in everybody’s, I did radio, I did print, I did billboards, I did everything, and that’s how I went from nobody knowing me to everybody knowing me, and then that was the gift. And so the way I would start over again is I would build content around context, and context is, you know, leveraging other people’s brand equity, and I would be the one giving them the platform. And then when you do the interview, you just need one little fucking nugget, like, that’s right. Like, if this was the Gary V show, and I was asking you questions, I would be looking for you to say, you know, I did Reflections, I think one thing that’s really underestimated is the quality of the current content in the marketplace. I think it’s just junk. I think it’s, you know, influencer culture’s polluted it, it’s so fake. You know, maybe if you say that, that’s the piece of content that people share on Twitter and say, yo, this kid gets it.
• [Male Speaker] Thank you. – You’re welcome. – [Male Speaker] Thank you. – [Male Moderator] Yeah. You had a question here. – [Female Speaker] Hi, my name is Sarah. I’m a CEO of a company called “Newer Wine Network.” I’m like 90% done with the app. We’re basically giving new talent in wine an opportunity to be seen by wine lovers, and it’s almost like a discovery channel for wine, like Netflix for wine lovers. We have zero customers yet, but my partner and I, we have great content, we’re selling our platform. – I understand. – [Female Speaker] We’re trying to get restaurants to get their inventory. – What are you gonna do when you get a bunch of them? – [Female Speaker] We’re just gonna keep on going.
• Just keep going. – [Female Speaker] Yeah, yeah, just keep going. My question is, we’re looking for investors.
• Do you have an audience, like, you know, for me, if you said I’m launching Wine Network and then we go live, and you said it’s Netflix for wine lovers, and you reach out to people that you know love

Paying for Content

• “When you ask people to pay for content, that shit better be real, ’cause it’s unlimited fucking content out there, and second of all, everybody thinks that they can move them, but every one of these A-listers over the last five years digitally have done some version of their own app, have been given equity in some new startup that has the same exact business model as you, and none of them have popped because when you try to drive people away from a free platform where there’s a lot of other people to a place where you have to pay for yours, people get exposed for not meaning that much.”

Losing Audience

• “So I think the biggest thing you need to, and then of course, you’re doing the other move that a lot of people do, which is like to bring seven or eight people that have a look, have an audience, well, maybe that momentum can carry through. The problem is when people start going to a paid place, they start trying to get their audience to come and pay them over here, which starts making them lose their audience in the free place. And that attention was the currency they had in the first place, and so they start losing on both sides.”

Challenges of the Model

• “There’s a very systematic reason why this model has not worked consistently for the last seven years, including companies that have had $20 to $30 million in funding. So I would just say, please do me a favor and like really really go do the homework on the 10 to 15 that have died over the last four to five years so you don’t make the same mistakes because I don’t believe that you may not figure it out, I just know it’s a lot harder than people think.”

Facebook and YouTube

• “‘Cause the theory of Facebook and YouTube is fucking you is ridiculous, they’re the people that put you on in the first place. You’re not paying YouTube and Facebook and Instagram for those hundreds of millions of potential views, so you gotta think about that.”

Question from Eugene

• “Thanks.”
• “You got it, brother.”
• “What’s up?”
• “A quick question.”
• “What’s your name?”
• “Eugene. So I’m a serial entrepreneur, and then I went into corporate America, made at most a six-figure income, and then I just walked away from that to go back into tech ’cause I couldn’t breathe, basically. And so I just thought of an ad site company. Basically, what we do is we do marketing for small businesses. We take their customers and we, hundreds of customers that come in the door every single day, and we turn them into a marketing resource. So we get them to promote on social media for discounts and free stuff, or you know, drive Yelp reviews and things of that nature. So it’s built, our entire platform is built on top of the Facebook Messenger application.”

Gary’s Response to Eugene

• “Love it.”
• “And so a lot of the conversation is altered by AI, all of that stuff.”

Further Discussion with Eugene

• “Understood.”
• “So I just wanted to kinda get your viewpoint on that, that process.”
• “I like a lot of what I’m hearing. I like the small business part, I like the practicality of it, like the long tail in that world has not been exposed, Facebook continues to think about it every day. You know, it’s where Google makes its money, the long tail is extremely profitable. And a lot of people aren’t focusing on it.”

Incentivized Actions and Vulnerabilities

• “The only thing I would tell you that made me kind of think that I would, if I was an investor or a partner, I’d be like hey. Incentivized actions to help a business usually ultimately break. So just keep in mind the psychology of like what happens when you’re incentivizing an action, the end consumer eventually understands it’s flawed. What Yelp’s, you know, anonymous breaks for the same reason. Eventually, the data, the content isn’t valuable. The fact that everybody just heard that you have a business that takes a customer that comes to a local business, they get a better deal to write a review on Yelp, has already made them not like Yelp as much anymore. Yelp was cruising until people started having friends or dating somebody who worked for a PR agency that wrote fake Yelp reviews. When you game the truth, you become vulnerable. So I would be very thoughtful about what you’re incentivizing so it doesn’t become the vulnerability of what you’re building. You stay away from that one vulnerability, every other thing is right. AI Messenger hasn’t even started, it will be a huge space. SMBs’ spend on social media hasn’t even started, it will be a huge space. Just gives thoughts to the last part.”

Eugene’s Response

• “Nice, thank you.”
• “You got it.”

Interaction with Victoria

• “How are you?”
• “Good, how are you?”
• “What’s your name?”
• “Victoria.”
• “Good, my name is Victoria Ekwenuke. I’m the global brand manager at eBay.”
• “Awesome.”
• “Yeah, and I just found it very interesting that at your core, buying and selling is who you are.”
• “Yes.”
• “And you know, a part of my job, I’m thinking about the future. I was actually spending some time at the Long Now Foundation. And they’re building a clock to last for 2,000 years.”

Victoria’s Question

• “And I can’t help but think, you know, we’ve evolved. So trade, barter, commerce, e-commerce, you talk about Craigslist, you talk about being practical. How do you think all that’s going to evolve in 2,000 years from now, and what are your thoughts of the future?”

Gary’s Response

• “First of all, my first thing that ran through my head is like Victoria, I love you, but I’m not fucking Nostradamus.” (audience laughter)
• “That’s the first thing that I thought of.”
• “Look, I think, you know, I think one thing, if you study human behavior, when you start getting into hundreds and thousands, you start to see circles, right, so I think technology is getting awfully close to barter.”
• “Do you know how much dumb shit everybody in this room right now has in their home? And then somebody else has dumb shit that that person wants? Like, I’m fascinated by barter in such an interesting way.”
• “Look, we’re always gonna trade, it’s always that. You know, back to the woo-hoo in the audience. Like, crypto’s so fun because it’s opened up so many different thoughts in my mind.”
• “The fact that you can sell me your home and we can do that in the blockchain, and all the people in the middle that have nothing to do with anything get cut out, and all those economics go back to us, energy bills.”
• “Like, you start looking at some of this, 30% of the money you’re paying for your energy in your home is for people in the middle that do nothing. So we’re getting closer and closer to a world of us. Which I think is super fascinating, massively vulnerable for governments.”
• “Which is why I think it’s not gonna happen so quickly. If you really understand blockchain, like, China, America, and Russia are not in the business for allowing it to actually succeed.”
• “‘Cause then we become one team. You take away currency, bombs are the only thing left, it gets really kind of, like I don’t think people are playing, people are so obsessed with Bitcoin, they’re not even on the theorem, they’re not even on blockchain, like this is real technology.”
• “You’re right, I am at my heart, I mean like, basically, I taught my brother how to be an entrepreneur by garage selling and selling on eBay.”
• “My favorite hobby in the world, and I’m not pandering to you right now, you can go watch all the film for the last 10 years, my favorite hobby, like I can’t fucking wait till March and April so I can start going garage selling on Saturday morning.”
• “I get a bigger high of finding some random little fucking toy for 50 cents at somebody’s house and selling it for six dollars on eBay than I do closing an $11 million deal for Vayner Media. And by the way, it’s not even close.”
• “And that’s why I keep doing it. Back to like what you had to do because when you can’t breathe, what are you gonna suffocate?”
• “And so like, I think it will continue to evolve, I think it’s getting more and more interesting. What I’m really interested in is between your platform, Craigslist, Letgo, Facebook Marketplace, there’s arb (arbitrage), right.”
• “You don’t even have to be, if you wanna be efficient and actually make money, and not just do it for fun like I do, you don’t need to leave your room and just buy shit in between the five platforms and find the arbitrage. It’s crazy, it’s crazy, it’s an amazing time for retail.”
• “It’s just an amazing time, you’ve got big box retailers going out of business, but we can like, if you ask me what is the one thing that everybody in this room has the best capability to build a $500,000 a year revenue business that gives them $200,000 take home, it is absolutely retail on the Internet and it’s not even close.”
• “And if you really understand how Amazon, Shopify work with those platforms, I mean, the fact that you can basically create any T-shirt company, use Facebook ads to target any long-term fan, right.”
• “Like, make T-shirts that are like, I grew up in Chicago in the 90s, right.” (audience laughter)
• “Run it in front of him, he’s like, ‘I grew up in Chicago in the 90s. Fuck it, I’ll buy it.'”

Discussion on Facebook Ads and Practicality

• “If you understood how to run Facebook ads, Facebook’s so underpriced right now, there’s so much inefficiency. That’s what I’m speaking to. Facebook ads are so underpriced that I can get in front of every one of you on the three emotional things that you give a shit about with a T-shirt and probably convert 1 out of every 30 times.”
• “The ads are so low, the margin on the T-shirts is so high, I can just run that at scale and make 200,000 a year no problem, yet people are trying to solve problems like build these billion-dollar platforms, and they’re all gonna lose and they’re all gonna be going, like if he doesn’t make it practical soon, when the economy decides to do its thing, he’s going back to corporate America. He has to make it profitable.”
• “Like, it’s just the way it is, so I don’t know, I’m really starting to get passionate about like, let’s get practical. Like, I know it’s fun to create the next Waze. I know it’s fun to create the next Instagram. It’s just the math’s against you. Meanwhile, all this money is sitting in the system and it just feels, and guess what?”
• “Back to like some of the themes, like nobody’s stopping you. There’s no boss, there’s nobody who hires you, there’s nobody who decides, the Internet doesn’t give a fuck if you’re black, white, girl, alien, the Internet’s the Internet. That’s why it’s the best. We will never achieve what the Internet is gonna do. We will never get good enough, we’re too fucking flawed.”
• “Unconscious bias is not gonna get fixed any time soon. The Internet doesn’t give a fuck. So take advantage, instead of like dwelling or being pumped or whatever the fuck side on things you are, just take fucking advantage. Attention is like real estate, right. The Internet is so young, you can still buy beachfront property. We weren’t around when Manhattan was fucking, do you understand a human being bought an acre in Manhattan for two dollars? You do understand that happened, right?”
• “It seems ridiculous, but it happened. Let me just remind you who the biggest spender of Google AdWords was in the first five or six years. Amazon. And that’s why they are who they are. And right now you have Instagram influencers, you have Facebook ads, you have real underpriced attention to do anything you want. You have people that are now used to buying e-commerce, like there’s so much opportunity. I just think we’re looking in the wrong places.”

Interaction with Speaker on “The Black Barrier”

• “Hi. How are you?”
• “Hi, how are you?”
• “I’m a little nervous.”
• “Don’t be.”
• “Because you might blast me, I don’t wanna end up on YouTube.”
• “I don’t wanna blast you.”
• “But basically, my project is called the Black Barrier.”
• “Let’s go.”
• “Basically, we follow black people, I’m from Oakland, I’m from Bay all day.”
• “Let’s go.”
• “And so for me, it’s really passionate because I saw a lot of black people being here, a lot of gentrification happening. And they wanted to tap into the black community without being a part of that gentrifying mechanism that’s being here, being in tech, you have the monetary means to buy big, million-dollar houses, and marginalizing people who really need the support and extra help.”
• “Understood.”
• “So for me, it started out as a joke, like I do Bay Area Bay of the Day and shout out people. I also shout out a lot of small local black-owned businesses. Now, the way I’m scaling this to monetize it is I’ve been doing like smaller events to get my name out there, but we’re launching a website. It’s gonna be theblackbayarea.org. It will be a larger ticketing hub, so if you wanna go on and tap into any black event locally, you’ll be able to buy the tickets from me instead of like a Ticketmaster or Eventbrite, you’ll just go ahead because I’ll be the word on the street.”
• “So I’ve made those relationships with the promoters and people that I wanna reach out to tap into. The second aspect is gonna be e-commerce. Now, I’m not gonna lay it all out all at one time, I’m just walking you through the three things (mumbles). The second one is e-commerce from smaller merchants. So if you’re from the Bay, you know this. One thing that you really really want, then I’ll have it on the site, the hottest product that a smaller local vendor will have. I don’t know how I’m gonna monetize it for myself, but I know it’s important for my community to have the visibility of someone going to a ticket hub that reflects of the community, they can buy items from the community, the stuff that’s hot that you normally, you don’t even have to go to a flea market, you can live in Boston but still buy like (mumbles) barbecue sauce.”
• “The third one is gonna be real estate. So I’m looking at black real estate investors to see, not investors, I’m sorry, realtors to post listings for homes to do roommates for black people who want a room with black people, but also, no, it’s real, it’s real at life though, it’s real life–“
• “Oh, I’m all ears, I’m laughing at them laughing.”
• “I mean, no, people getting toothpaste and mayonnaise and stuff like that is really really important. I mean, there’s mayonnaise and toothpaste and things.”

Starting a Media Entity or Company

Such a successful company and you’re looking back at it from the perspective of, you know, where you are now, what first steps would you take in terms of creating a media entity or a media company, you know, saying you had zero followers or zero funding or really scrapping it out to create a content-driven business?

I think the best advice for a content-driven business is to scratch your own itch.

[Male Speaker] Scratch your what?

Own itch. Like, make the media company, the blog, the Instagram account that you wish existed. Because you know it. You know it, you’re one of it. Like, we’re on, guys, do you know how big forums still are on the Internet? Like, 1994 technology, because little groups, little neighborhoods, that’s why the young woman who was just talking who’s going to the bathroom, I hope, right now, it’s like, that’s why it worked, ’cause it was niche, it was niche. I’m telling you, man, people try to boil the ocean. Go narrow. You know, like go narrow. Like Barstool’s winning ’cause that team made what they wanted, they wanted irreverence, they wanted mixed culture, a different way. That’s the only way to break through, ’cause you have to understand, it’s an incredible time, but all of us can do it. So it’s a supply and demand issue, right. It’s an incredible time, it’s an incredible time. But everybody can start one. So it’s easy and hard. Which means to me go deep as fuck. Like, go very narrow to what you know, right. And go deep deep deep into that, I think that’s the place to go, and then use the modern places where there’s attention. You start a media company today, you should be voice and social first, not website and email first. ‘Cause it’s underpriced attention. You can take that attention from Instagram or a podcast and then start a website. I bought PureWow, a women’s lifestyle business, back a year ago. And I’m gonna launch a men’s one, and it’s all gonna be launched on the back of my audience. And I built that audience in social and voice, and I’m gonna penetrate it to a website and other things as well. And so I have it already. And so we all have that too, we have what we have. We have our lives, our passions, our interests. I want people to go narrow, real narrow, there’s a real long tail business, really, there is. I mean, really, there is. Cool. And I wanted to do this guy.

[Male Speaker] Thanks so much, Gary. Actually, I have to thank you for all the content, because I actually, I put it on the streets, and it works.

Thank you. – [Male Speaker] My problem is, I’m a doctor, and–

Golfer. – [Male Speaker] Yeah, for sure. I’m a plastic surgeon, and pretty good as well. Actually, (mumbles) and I have one startup as the CEO. And the problem is, about following your advice, we put everything on the streets, we documented everything. And we got a good problem. Because we have audience we built, audience for my patients, and we have audience now for entrepreneurs, guys that wanna make the same path. And now the problem is when people Google my name, they can find both. And maybe some patients, they like say hey, I don’t wanna make a nose job with this guy, because they don’t have full time on just it. And on the other side–

You’re looking at it wrong. You know what I mean? Well, because you’re looking at the downside, not the upside. – [Male Speaker] Yeah, it’s what I’m asking you. Because it’s a little bit new for me, you know. Just all this audience, and now people are making, well, sending emails in and direct on Instagram, I wanna build up a business in a new field, and an extra, oh, I’m (mumbles), well–

It’s super interesting to have you here, because I think one of the things I’m trying to figure out is the people that are taking my advice are winning.

[Male Speaker] Yeah, for sure. People, I can say, it works, for sure, this works. Yeah, you can buy his books. Yeah, it works.

What happens is they get into the crossroads that happens to you, which is you’re trying to do it to build your chiropractor company, your yogurt shop, your surfing knowledge, and then what’s happening is you’re getting inundated now with people who want you to teach them how to do that for theirs. – [Male Speaker] For sure. – Look, I think that’s, to your point, you said it very quickly, it’s a good problem. I would definitely tell you not to worry about it. Right, like I have so much, if you look at my Instagram content, right. – [Male Speaker] Every day. – Thank you. If you, but, thank you, but let me– – [Male Speaker] What can I say? – If you look at my latest post, my latest post on Instagram is me hanging out with Gunna, the up and coming rapper from Atlanta. That is not necessarily what Chase Bank and ABI and SAP, my clients want to see from me. But the truth is the truth. – [Male Speaker] Yeah. – I run the best agency, and so they’re gonna hire you. If you’re great at your craft, there’s nobody who’s not gonna come to you because you’re teaching other people how to build a business, it will all be net positive. Don’t allow yourself to look at the negatives or perceived negatives or issues. For every person you lose that says, “He’s not spending all his time on that,” you’re gonna get three others because you are spending all your time on that. – [Male Speaker] Good for them. Give a shit for them (mumbles). – Life’s a net game. Do you understand? Too many people are dwelling on what they’re losing without understanding that those same tactics make them win. When I started speaking in 2009, I cursed a lot. And I didn’t wear suits. And you know, there’s a lot of youngsters in here, this may seem foreign, but that was not super fucking acceptable just eight years ago. And I would get emails, then I got a speaking agent, and I would get so many emails. Literally, CAA, my agency, would call me once a month and say, “If you stop cursing, we can get you four more speaking gigs a month easy.” And I would reply consistently for three years, motherfucker– (audience laughter) If I stop cursing, nobody’s gonna listen to me speak ’cause I’m not gonna be me. Right. And guess what, I won because the world changed. When you’re yourself and you’re true, that’s why, Jason, I really loved what you were talking about, could you imagine how much the world has evolved? Let me leave you with this as you’re thinking about stuff. If you told a parent 12 years ago that, when they have a 15 year old daughter, they would rather than 15 year old daughter go into a strange man’s car four times a day instead of driving their own car, they would’ve laughed you out of the room. (audience laughter) But if you live in a rich rich rich neighborhood and your daughter turns 16, the big new gift is not a new Benzo, the big new gift is unlimited Uber. (audience laughter) Right? It’s true, could you imagine if I had a video 15 years ago and say one day in 15 years, all of you are gonna send your 15 year old daughters into 43 year old weird Benz cards 24 hours a day? (audience laughter) They would’ve laughed me out of the room. Norms change. Norms change. To be very honest, this, you know, especially when I talk to my friends and minorities, like urban culture is America’s culture now. Like, when Merbo and I talk about, like it’s just the truth. It’s just the truth. Go show me anything that’s popular, I’ll show you where it started, Atlanta. You know, like it’s just, it’s so basic. It’s so basic. Literally, if you told me my mission as a brander over the next seven years was to get 15 year old white women to buy something, I would start with rappers in Atlanta. Because that’s how it ends up there. And so you can run away from things, you can like look at things, I just think that, no matter where you are or what you are, look at hip-hop, I’m 42, I grew up with hip-hop where guys faked how hard they worked ’cause their aunt lived in Oakland and they visited her once a year. And they said they were from Oakland, but they weren’t fucking too sure. You know what I mean? They were fucking bullshit, but in 1992, 93, 94, people remember it, you had to pretend you were hard ’cause there was only one move. Lil Yachty would’ve got his face beaten in 1992. (audience laughter) Yeah, right? But if you stayed true, it would’ve come to you, because now everything is acceptable. And so everybody is deviating into something. I say put your fucking flag on the ground of who the fuck you are, I have a funny feeling it’s gonna come to you, especially with the way the world’s working now. Because what all this Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer stuff is it’s all very simple. It’s over. The Internet, there is no hiding, everything will be exposed. Do you know how great the world is gonna be in 50 years? Let me make you optimistic. We’re taking one step backwards, you know why? We’re facing shit we need to face. We’ve been faking the truth. And so we’re taking one big step back and we’re dealing with it.

It’s like, it’s gonna be a painful fucking decade, it hasn’t even started. We’re gonna be dealing with a lot of shit, but let me tell you what our grandkids are gonna be living through. They’re gonna be living through a world, because of the full exposure of who we are, where everybody realizes everybody’s got fucked up shit. There’s not a person in here, not one person in here that doesn’t do something that we consider right now a real flaw. It’s just the truth, it’s just the truth. We as a collective have to go through the pain of that, but when we get on the other side, like when we’re all old and we’re looking at this, remember this talk. That’s pretty egotistical, but try to like– (audience laughter) Try to build on this yourself and forget where it started. Let me go that route.

We’re gonna be happy ’cause it’s gonna be different. It’s gonna be real real different because everybody’s gonna start accepting people’s shortcomings. And we’re gonna have very different conversations, and things like marriage and things like money and sex and race, like we’re gonna have some real conversations over the next 20-30 years, get ready ’cause this isn’t gonna stop. And we are just not the animals that we wish we were. And we just have to face that, own it, go through that painful process. But we will be much better people in 50 years from today because of this time during this era, because the Internet is exposing us, and I’m very grateful for that. I’m happy ’cause the truth should win, but you’ve gotta go through some shit to get to the other side, and that’s what we’re gonna do. That’s cool on a holistic level that I’m sure a lot of people, looking around here, are very passionate about. On your own personal level, do that with yourself as a person and as an entrepreneur, and shit will go in a totally different place, I promise you. Own your shortcomings, own your strengths, surround yourself with the other shit, and stuff starts to pop. Thank you for having me. (applause, cheering) (pop music) (calm music)