Memetic Rivals and Success Mindset

This is going to be one of the highlights that I know from this meeting, this podcast. I love that I said meeting. This feels more like a business meeting than That's why you guys are successful. I feel like I can rule the world I know I could be what I want to on the road let's travel., let me ask you a hard hitting question I've known you now for a few years, a while now own a computer. You know what's funny? I did not own a computer For four or five years going into COVID. So what year did you buy your first laptop? I went full phone becausecause I didn't work within Excel or any documentation and it was all email meetings. social. So I I think I stopped having a laptop in fifteen, went to nineteen without one, but I've had one since You know, those luxury brands where 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 had one guy try to share his screen and he was like, honestly, he's like, honestly, guys, this this is bad. I don't know what. I don't even know what I'm doing. And we go just click in Chrome. He goes, what's Chrome He didn't even know what phone was because I don't think I have one of those. It's ironic. I would actually ar you know, it's so crazy to think of evolution. So I went through those four years, it was 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. Computer is like the most important thing in my life, right? That's just so fascinating Wait, what are you doing with Open Clw G? I mean, lots of things. I think with openenClaw 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 were their 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 openpenClaw is it might even happen here. I might literally take a photo of this screen sent to my openen Claw on text. It's mainly for CRM for me, right now, relationship grap. 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 to like keep me updated on when things are happening. Like even sending you guys an 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 like its 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, Nick Dio Yeah I think you I don't know if he' still with y, but this fascinated me. does these really interesting things. He's like host these dinners almost like on behalf of Gary Who is this guy? What is he doing? So I'll tell everybody who's listening. This is actually a pretty this will be good. This is gonna be good for your crew. Nick Dio is the BP of relationships. He literally goes around the world and in essence, he's been with me for twelve years, started as an intern, grew up in Vayer media. I trust him to represent me to some degree becausecause I can't be everywhere. And about two three years ago, I realized my favorite thing about business peopleople ' probably why I ended up having an agency with three thousand people when that's not the best business model It's why I make so much content And I just like the people part. and Nick just became another version of that, which is like, I can't be everywhere 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 It's a karma Like no KBI, no ROI. L like pay attention. And Nick, you know me so well, You know, we have so much to give Keep your ear to the ground You know, figure out's got the right intent figure out who's talking shit and not talking shit. Like who's good? Who's good tell you what it was like from my perspective. I got a 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 it said like, hey, I'm going to be in Austin, Do I to get dinner? Yeah, Yeah. I just said yes. and then I just got sent an invite and the invite, like I said, it could have saident the details, but I show up And it's like fifty people. It was at a very wealthy person's home, this like Microsoft executiviveess home.. And I'm like, hey, where's Gary? They're like, Oh, he he's out here, but I'm here. I'm Nick. and I'm hosting on his behalf. And I like Yours was yours felt like more of a robund dope? Yeah No, but I want to give you credit I don't think I read it. There's a chance I didn'd read it, but I did there and I met I remememberered that party because I was one of the bigger ones. It was never allluded. like I apologize if we didn't workd it well but I remembered the context. Like we weren't trying to trick you to meet the. No I don't think so. And I bet like I bet this cool dude named Hunter, do you know Hunter I think his name's Woodall. He's got one leg and he like won in the paralympics. He was bad at us. 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, whichich 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 ten other awesome people versus what can I do for you? right? That's the easiest way to do it. Yeah, was one And it was early in Nick's 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 businessus acquainances 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 he's been with me a long time, grew up with me and he represents me well and he's smart. And I trust him. So then when he hits me and says, hey This person really needs a new marketing person. L 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 DC brand. It's gone from zero to twenty million. We're not an investor in the company. I've invested interesterest. They just lost their head of marketing. He was like over dinner talking in a group of twelve, like he's stressed and worried. And then three weeks earlier, one of my best people at Bayner 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 transaction. And like we do that In a way that I I now do feel three like in the last three years, people are starting to understand Gary and Gary B a little more. like because we're doing it at such scale that eventually the truth becomes your actual reputation I think on the surface, it's like, o Okay, great, this guy hostsinners, that's cool. Sounds like he's got a mandate to spread good karma and just help people. That's cool. I think this is actually unbelievable. And 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 it said LeBron James spends a million dollars a year on his body Yeah know, peopleople went nuts and this went everywhere. This is like a global thing. otherther athletes turn onto this And I I was thinking about it the other way. I was like, first of all Obviously This guy iss a billionllar athlete for him to spend a million dollars year in his body. That's like a masuse, a trainer, good a chef. and there's nothing. He should be spending three, four times that if anything.econd is What a great The question everybody should ask themselves who wants to be great is what is your equivalent of spending a million dollars a year on your body And you 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 get how do I go do an immersion with you? I know you usually do once a week, but I wantan to do immersion becausecause he's like, I wantna be the best coach. so I'm going to go learn all the modalities from the best teachers of those modalities And I just think everybody should ask this and what you're doing with Nick, to me is the equivalent of LeBron James spends a million dollars on his bodies. Gary spend Gary spent probably at this point, five million plus, ten million maybe developing relationships with people who he thinks are doing good things in the world. He wants be the win in their sales. I have three full time employees at BaynerX who host influencers that are emerging to walk through the office and meet brand deal teams to maybe get them brand deals on pure Karma. Yeah. that's amazing. And I think that type of investment, it only comes from first principles. Doing good things for people literally the highest ROI 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 minimumally the hope that something comes back to them 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. Sam, to your point, I didn't do this the first thirty years of my career. L I got to a place where I could afford investing that Yeah, but what I was going to ask you is I think that you've always 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 like to operate. And also you've defaulted to doing things that don't really make sense on paper, but because you're you, it does appear as though it works out nicely profit How do you justify doing some of these things that don't make any sense financially, knowing that like when Vayner Media 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 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'anian was at one of our events. And he checked me in the best way possible. We were talking about how like, 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. I pay like a quarter million dollars year just to host this event And it's like Look, I asked nothing in return, which is all about, you know, just having a really E everybody's like this. We're all like a generous crew. And he goes, no, no That's not it. And I was like, oh shit, what is what is he about to say? And he goes He goes, it's just the difference between short term greedy and long term greedy. He goes, you know, he was in the first YC batch and he goes, onene of the beautiful things about Silicon Valley is you learn the virtue of long t long term greedy people. And he goes, it's not a bad thing.'s everyverybody obviously wants their interests, but when it's long term greedy, you're going to play a totally different game than short term greedy. That's exactly right. would tell you Nuance that I do see in some others, which is why I gravitate towards them is And then if your 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? What does that mean I probably do everything I'm doing not to get into a deal in nine years I put a million and make forty million more for My daughter has an issue in nineteen 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. Sometimes it's hard to run a business that way, being nice all the time because you have to make difficult decisions like firing someone if they suck. You seem like you are a really bad fire. I literally wrote a book because I was so bad at it. I hit it, but it was called twelve and a half And in the book, the thirteenth 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. know you can only talk about your alcoholism when you're like 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 firer. I was an all time atrocious firer Right? And I didn't see it, right? All of us, currently the three of us. And we're proud of ourselves in certain areas and know we can do. But currently B by far the biggest problem the three of us had is something we can't see I used to think of it as my ultimate strength, Sam 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 eighteen years old rain but the liquor store for real. likeike truly like This eighteen year old child is the boss know because he's the boss's son in this brocher 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 forties, 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 can have the best weekend, my guy. like have like really, I think you guys know me. I'm a little go lucky that way. I'm like, Sam, you have the best fking weekend this weekend, right? and you're working for me for threety years. like all right, Cry likeike you too. And then like Monday I'd be like, Sam, you talk to you in my office, Hey, so you know, it's to be your last day And by the way, I've been sitting on this for a year and a half That to bl scam, right And today's your last day and you're like, ro like like you've never said anything like And then I would blame you. I'd be like, Sam, you're you're so deuteed. Like you then I would talk to Sean and be like, Seaan, can you blve Sam? Like everyone the company knows Sam sucked for last eighteen months. I was giving him a gift for the last year of charity and he's mad at me. I was coming up with that excuse. so my candor was at a zero. I rebrand. So I have this real watershed moment where a group of former Vayner employees like were in a Facebook group, like not talking nicely about me. and these were people I really had a lot of contin ironically, like know, it's funny that person also over time realizes what they did. So there was like a lot of them I reconciled with in a great way, but it was really hurtful But I knew I had to be accountable. I'm like, why are these people who are lovely people who I really went to bat for. did a lot of great things for 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 what's funny is Have you guys sort of obviously have, but Jensen Hung, the Nvidia guy, he has this great line where he's like, I'm not going to fire you. I'm gonna to squeeze you so hard that greatness comes out of you And then interestingly, Day Portooy, the founder of Bar Stool, he had another point where he goes, I never fire anyone. I refuse to fire anyone But we are going to make you great. Like he said something like that. And I thought that was so fascinating because that's the exact opposite of what I think. You know, we had Neil Patell 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 wantt built and if they can't do it, then I hire 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 hear a hire slow, fire fast. I bleed into both those categories, by the way, and then have a third element, which is I'm cliche girl that wants to date the bad boy because I'm gonna fix him If I didn't have entrepreneurial DNA, I would one hundred percent be a therapist, guidance counselor, or a coach, right? And so I allowed both in my investing and in my operating Too much In my twenties through mid forties, too much of my nonprofit therapy, DNA into my day to day I've been able to clean it up in the last five years 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 like, whatever, you know, and and so For anyone who's struggling with this, like there's a better way. Like, you know, can't me let me say it 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 to fifty, I'm now in that place where I could be a lot better. and it's 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 thos of our company. becausecause I think candor a lot of times is used as an excuse to be a dick face and suppress people And so we had to put that word kind in front of it And it's worked for me and for my leadership and it's been a big step forward in 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 a country mile, because almost the far majority of 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 in Idaho to someone going deep cut on what they're doing with Clawud code to pontificate. And it's truly like I am a product of this era. Like whose video are you are you turning the sound on lately, you know, when you're soing on Instagram Honestly, like 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. L my brother, for example, would answer this epic. He's got his 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. Which ones are those? Tell us about it. What we got up now Vayner media Mer X four hundred million in revenue. I am the day to day CEO and that owns all the other six. It own it owns none of the other six. No wow. Vayner sports And what's Vadersports doing exactly Oh, Vayer spports does sports representation. So we rep Cousins, sauce gardener, Aiden Hutchinson, Bobaet And NIL stuff too now or just pros And I had scale. We have probably three hundred college athletes. Okay. I that's doing tens of millions That's doing tens of millions in revenue I have CR group, which is a restaurant group, which is if you remember famously I had that NFT restaurant, News alert, everyone, it's crushing. It's called Flyfish Club. We also have Cons at Ito and five restaurants And I'm ully involved texting with David Rodleitz all the time. So VCR group tens of millions in revenue as a restaurant group. I have V friends Be friends is probably the thing I'm most like AJ and David Rodolz are one A in the prior two businesses, I am one A in V friendriends VFriends is going to do minimally twenty million in revenue this year in licensing and selling comic books and coins and trading cards. I'm building a true brand. like 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 era that I'm going to get to the other side and be Marvel and Pokemon is going to fuck with everyone so heavy in fifteen years Wine library People would be flabbergasted how involved I still am in the wine business. My best friend runs it. I am definitely one B to my dad and Brandon's one A Work on it every single day One that's really under the radar, Vainer w Ver suuccessful TV production company that's kind of brewing right now called Vaynerwatt bunch of shows that have quietly just sold. So you like literally on Hulu and ABC and Netflix, like you're gonna see Vainner Wat Vainer pop up. And then finally, and I'm sure not lost on you guys 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 monetized via speaking I did a deal with Stan. I did a deal with Masterclass. I'm I'm starting to be open to Gary B. I don't do like a brand deal. I'll look at seven and eight figure NIL deals where it's really integrated, potentially me doing a little consulting as well. But I think you guys are probably I'm writing a new book called The Individual Empire, which talks about the me, the Bartlets, the Alex Coopers the rise of the creator entrepreneur and the entrepreneur creator as the next Fortune five hundred companies. and my believe with AI blockchain evolving social you know decentralization 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 can operate or they're a 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 team at 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 in something that's really easy to read and understand. And so if you want to just save yourself ten years of headache and heartache, then you should check it out. I wish we had this a long time ago. It would have helped me a lot, but there should be a QR code on your screen that you can scan or a link in the description. so check it out. It's totally free Tottally 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 ninety six hours a day. And so you know, walk us through what does the day look like? What's the time blocking look like for this, right? What's a 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 is I'm pretty much an A to eight thirty to eight to nine AM start point done between Eight and ten PM depending on the day But there's not a single break, No launch, no anything. Every minute's booked sixty percent of the meetings for fifteen minutes And again, let's get to the point here, right Let's get to the point here. This is thirty 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've interacted a little bit with you guys I this feeling that I was going to 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. the relationship and that they would believe in me and then they would say, you know, in fifteen years, I might actually make more money being Gary's number thirteen versus me my own number. I just had this intuit and that I could convert D's into B's and C's into B's. 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'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 abbs and flows of like, oh sh Banner sports needs me or shit Bner Like there's all that But the real reason is because of the fifty people from Ryan Harwood or Kaalin or Claude or JT, or AJ and Greg Gensky, or David Rodolitz and Connor, Hamlet or Andy Kay and and JT, John Truman and May and Rip Son be friendriends, or Brandon Warnnegie on Wine Library, or Eric Wattenberg, Bayner Watt on that And I've got another one coming that I'll announce next year, standalone business. and it's somebody who's worked for me for eleven years who's going to be my co founder. And I had the experience with Resi. You know, like people forget that I'm the co founder and inventor of Rzi, but I had Ben Leventhal be the one A. I was the one B, and that was a hefty nine figure exit. And I had Empathy Wines. twowo former interns of mine who worked for me for eleven years and we started Empathy Wines and in eighteen months, sold it for a almost nine figure, hefty eight figure deal to Colation brands in eighteen months just like, you know, everyone's like gruins. I'm like, I did that, not 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 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 ask 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 in 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 Do you get nervous about that or do you not care? You think I just love this 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 where they need a business person to also be in round But then there's also Like I mean, you guys are like inot 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 in the Bahamas and and play golf in Bakers Bay and that's their escapism when they need an escape When I need a break from Vader 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 be friendriends because it fills my soul and I do the comic stories of my characters Or I go to a half day at Wine Library and talk to Brandon, becausecause he's my best friend since I was fourteen and I need it for my soul. But then we also fix the business What what's going on in these fifteen minute meetings Beuse I suspect what you're doing in fifteen minutes is takaking most people an hour. So maybe you have a format mayaybe I'm mad at you, bro. you took my shit. I was you asked that I was about to say the thing that everyone's house is spending an hour on This is going to be one of the highlights that I know from this meeting, this podcast. everyone's going I love that I said meeting. This feels more like a business meeting than this is why you guys are so successful Everyone's going to say yes right now on the treadmill walking the dog in their car on a plane or however they're consuming this Everyone's meetings are twice as long as they need to be if they're a winner and they know it You got slam poetry snaps for me. And I just went there. I knew it subconsciously, then it becs of just You know, then years went on and it became conscious and then I executed. I have this huge pride of how underrated as a businessman I am because when what I just dropped on you guys, literally nobody really knows, which is wild because I'm Gary V and I'm talking all the time. And I think I got there on the fifteen minute meeting and the family business vibes of my partners in crimes and the top and by the way, it's not just one person Every company requires three or four family members for it to really work the way it works for me. because you got to have a backup and a backup and a backup because there's so many variables that can go into these things. So the fifteen 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. I have a wife, It's just like, you can 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 thirty percent on being informed. seventy percent of making decisions. That's insane That's hard Do 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 look, this feels incredible go on to these incredible things after they film me for a little while, I get all these offers or start doing own things. And so I constantly have a derck coming through, you know every year or two. 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 clearly DNA, I wonder if growing up in retail where you're just switching like everything's just always on. I don't I actually think that sometometimes when I say contxt switching, we had a guy 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 rest of the podcast was kind of shaky because he was like, oh, 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 I've come to learn it's unique to do that Tw, now you're really talking about it That is definitely been even That has definitely been something I got from 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. L I get a lot of bad news every day. One, I'm psycho and I'm in the HR of all my companies. And now we have so many goddamn employees Every day someone's dad is say's just like, I want to know if somebody in my company is going through tough stuff. And then there's just when you're in client services We went sixteen months without losing a client at BaynerX, We're ripping hot, right And then recently in the last sixty days, we've lost two And the first one was not surprising. the 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've really gotten that because I was pissed and like I wanted 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 happen 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, Seaan, what's the joke? What's the stereotype if anyone wants to get a hold of you? Do you know what that stereotype is about you, Sean? call B, I don't know. No, Shan will not reply. Get in touch with Shaan when you need to, sometimes it's a pit of the butt. 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. Shaan worst part is I go to them and I say, Hey, long time no talk. When I think of somebody and I see that actually they have been talking and I haven't. and I'm like, okay, I shouldt 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, they get to the addmins and the Adms 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? My tummy Yeah I want to do this and I want to do what this person. not good, Gary. sayay it cute. L you say tummy. I got tummy tickles. You know, just there's so much serendipity to it I'm very comfortable Dying on my sword which is my intuition very comfortable Well, have you guys ever came close to bankruptcy or not been able to make payroll? You know, it's funny Make payroll. Reszi was in trouble. I had to put personal money in that I didn't really have at the time. Nothing I've ever operated as the one A. You know, I got trained by a Soviet immigrant father who didn't even let raising capital, forget it Forget it literally didn't have a credit line And we were in the liquor business where you had to legally pay your bills on thirty 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 rainy day and thirty 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, well you always have that money All right, let's take a quick break. 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 the deal to another company that did HubSpot has AEO, which helps you show up in the moments when the right buyers are looking for a company like yours. before the first click, before they fill in the form, that is the moment Hubspot AEO is built for, check out hubspot. com, the aentic 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 are you seeing a lot of heat right now There's 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 Tim create an exit five months from now So that takes me to people that are really spending time on advanced AI You like really knowing where the stigma is today, but won't be in five years Right? Like creating an entire agency of virtual people R? Knowing right now it's a little weird, but let's survive three to five years and we're gonna to have the CAA of virtual people. They're all going to be the most famous virtual people and we own it. You're in the IP business, 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 shoppings do in e commerce is what e commerce did to real like real life. And so what I mean by that is like in six to ten years You know, I think eCom now is what twenty five, thirty percent of the market. like in six to ten years, live shopping will actually be. tencent to fifteen percent of all commerce And that is scary big. Did you invest in what thatot? I did not I obviously talk about one not also It's not in' possible You've been talking about live seelly for years. San, you'll love this. Anyt time I've invested in something that I end up having to talk about a lot make a lot of content on fr that I'm an investor. So the way you know if I'm an investor in something is I'm saying it a lot early on because I never So you know what? I'm sure everyone thinks I did. And by the way, 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 he crossed my desk, but I never took like a meaningful meeting with Grant, but I'm so happy for him. He done a great job. I'm happy for the people that invested. I think Seaan didn't they ask you to invest in the seed run and you forgot to reply to the email No, no, no. that was a that was a U notot 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 Titch. I'm amazing. Have I told you how amazing I am, you gott to let me invest the rounded like just closees. but a lot of times They'll let you in. if they lied you, they'll open it up or they they'll squeeze you in. He was just like, let me see what I can do. And I didn't hunt to chase it like ten times more And I just let it go. and yeah, that was that wass a big miss. I have a great email in my inbox from Joe at Bedp. Airbed and Brefast. Airbed Yeah, I'm trying to remember was it? Yeah, Airbedinbreakfast d. comot That's a good one. Yeah Do you have any other ones that you haven't talked about? Yeah No you have Uber. Obviously, that's the famous one. Airbnb. But I never saw the email, so it doesn't hurt up Pinterest I had a guy who was the CSO, the chief strategy offer at Campbell' Soup who is like sixty years old, said, Gary, you gott to look at this startup from Pennsylvania. That's how he said it My friend's cousin K knowows the guy. I'm like, okay. let's like'm Yeah, It's like I got ach. It's like getting a script for Hollywood and sh, you know, I didn't even like contemplate it. Yeah. so that was close and then But I got in 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 three and a half million dollars valuation, both was like twenty five thousand dollars checks. when he had like. That's exactly.enty five He told me he had like's like he's like, I had seventy five grand in personal savings and I put twenty five in each of those companies 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 him. 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 Bayner wanting us to be the people, but we didn't take on those kind of clients. Some of things I invested in, some I didn't I want to be better at that My biggest win that I don't deserve is going to be liquid death Mike worked at Vain Redia the day before he started look with death as a creative. And he sent me an email and said, Hey, I'm leaving, Thank you for your time. I learned 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 them 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. 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 on consumer brands, marketing is a stunning variable, especially if the product's a commodity and water is a commodity, right? Like water in plastic versus water in can doesn't really change the variable. In fact, the can is advantage So I understood that part. It was more interesting why I invested. 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 Mes first check in. Today's podcast is brought 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 of my businesses. I think I have like maybe seven or eight businesses. We use Mercury as our business banking across all of them And now they actually just launched a personal bank account. So I have my personal account there. I moved off of Wells Fargo in 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 that I have, so like very easy to make a joint account with my wife, veryery easy to spin up virtual cards, One click and I get savings yield. It just has all the stuff that I need in one place So if you're looking for the best banking product on the market, it's definitely Mercury. I will fistfight anybody who disagrees with me on that. Go to mercury dot com slash personal and learn more. Mercury is a Fintech, not an FDIC insured bank. Banking services are provided through Choice Financial Group and Cumn N A, members FDIC. You're significantly larger than both of us, but we sort of run in the same world. and there's a lot of scammers and shady people in this 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 tona be around this person? like they have a background of doing X, Z, or they don They have political beliefs that I don' buy into and I don't want to be associated. Pit I'll beony. and you guys knowice I never talk politics. pololitical beliefs won't throw me off because I'm very empathetic that people can see the world 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 no 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 at the same place and they want a quick selfie and I don't want you know That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah. And you know this 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. Yeahah, of course, you never, I mean, there's people the amount of people that will take us sell forget about people we know There are people that are tier nineteen people that are trying to do this, they have like four followers and they sell a four thousand dollars 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 their mastermind. Well, they did when they asked you a question. I guess It's you do have to be conscious of that And you do need to worry about your NIL and your reputation. It 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 think of the Epstein files because I'm like a huge true crime fan. And so like seeing the Epstein files, like the Jmail, you know, you can go through this 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 while you were just saying that thing the Estein thing because I think about that too. I'm like, who's he emailed me through the years? 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 L I definitely not in writing, you know, like you know, And so like I don't worry about that luckily and it allgost credit how I was raised I really believe being the bigger person, being a nice person. You know what's really interesting to me? Actually, I wantan to ask you guys a question This flows me away We are fortunate. We've worked hard, we had talent. We're at where we're at. And what that allows us is to spend some time. in private and public settings with other people that have won The thing that completely rocked me And when it 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 envy or I don't even know what. And I'm like this energy Like I'm like, what do you? like I had to say this to a couple buddies. Not too long. I'm like, you guys are a bunch of. fourteen year old bitches. I'm like, what are you talking about? She should be happy for XY Z 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 shitting on, you guys do the same shit. What is this? Like you're winning, like focused on winning if you're so actually sad that they won even more than you And you got feelings about it? Why don't you take these three hours of bitching about this person like? He enters and go build something But Seaan, what percentage of incredibly successful people do you know who you think are good, wonderful people with good attitudes U I think they're a good wonder for 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 youre you're unlikely to be extreme winner without some version of an extreme personality.. I think that's fair Hunst Thompson said he said theres there's no reasonable people on the top of Mount Everest. Yeah. G 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 Renee Gerard, like Memetic theoryiess like Peter Te's really big on this. which is 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 I believe in that in fact In fact, this is where all my gratitude comes from Mother in 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 So I think most people have this sort of metic drive, right? And this is why you see trends and fads catch on because I want to go buy Nados right now because all the other kids are buying Nidos. and I want to say this because other people say this I want to wear Jordans because they wear Jords. 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 I was on this plane ride and I had this embarrassing moment where I was admitting to somebody. I was like, you know what? I feel stupid even saying this It kind of drove me nuts the way this guy was saying it. I was kind of bitching about somebody, which 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 then like blah,ah blah and he goes He goes, you know what? he goes, that person's your mmetic rial. I, What what's a mmetic rial? It basically, it's like I don't know if you saw when, Bezos was launching like his rocket and Elon's launching his rocket. And then they had this really passive aggressive thing I it's in Elon's biography. It's very funny.. It's like Congratulations to Jeff on the first suborbital launched. And he's like Elon landed it. And he's like, congratulations on the first successful landing from only a you know, two megat ton, whatever. It's like they added these little qualifiers. They started blocking each other because for each other, they're memetic rivals, right? And And it's just a very strange thing. youd think these are the most secure people on Earth, but we all have a core part of us that has it. It's haveave you learned tame it? live with it. And it's funny. I literally believe the reverse. I genuinely believe that the farar majority of people. getet to the top from extreme insecurity. Okayy, let me ask you one more question. and and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, if it's too private. With the six or seven businesses that you've named. bad ass and like I'm looking at the people you hired or I guess they are your co foundounders. It's freaking awesome. I was looking at some of your partners and 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 he's Watt Steve Ross, the owner of the Dolphins, who's in Vainner media with me as well, He funded that. He wanted to be a part of that on the rest I I fund it Thats awesome.ike I was looking at that I't know that you had a restaurant And I was looking at that and it looked like a membership club. and I looked at the interiors and I was like, No, it was a it was a meaningful buildout Um, like, no, it's it's been really cool. likeike I, um I've been a really fun part of my career. I'm actually I actually just use this platform, this incredible platform. so thank you for having me. Talking a little bit more because 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. R. It might actually be a weirdly good operator at scale.. ong, Google Fly Fish Club, Manhattan or just fly Fish Club. And please come when you guys are New York. You'll be blown. I live here now, Gary. I live on the other sidees. So like ASAP, email me after this like ASAP, ASAP. I want you to see it. It's a three story restaurant with a privateastee room like it's real. But more importantly, 'cause you know this, it could also be going out of business tomorrow Meaning It's like the business is extremely viable. in fact, Sam, now that you're here upper Westide, if you just go over to GW, which I know is counterintuitive Restaurant, we opened in Beren County, New Jersey called Capeon's Chop house We now know we're about to open another one in Westchester. We're about to open fifty of those In high netork 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 it's all written, the BaynerX marketing machine impacts all these businesses, right? What's the model? It says that it's a membership. The model is open up The new version of Ruth's Chris and like the best steakhouse 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 going to sell the out of these places. It's not a new invented model. It's a member. You have to be a member. Caons is just Capons is just A Ruth wrist Stakehouse two point zero. but we have a very strong Well we do to Eugene's credit, to Grutman's credit, to Noah's credit Those places have nail cools Right? There's that nightl element We're going twenty percent less on net and twenty percent more on food. We think the secret to retention LTB is just execute a food program that is so undeniable And a little bit of that sizzle. But your steak's gota be right, right, right? L our strategy is killer chicken parm. It was like, yes, actually, that's kind of what people want. You've gotten into this business genius. He decided this is start an agency and a restaurant. The two best businesses on earth. Literally 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 going to turn V Friends into Pokemon and it iss going to be one of the most valuable intellectual properties in the world in twenty 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. You're the shit. Thank you guys Yeah. They will. Wish you well. All right. That's it. That's the pod I feel like I could rule the world and know I could be what I want to.. I put my all in it like my days on the road. let's travel, never look. Hey, let's take a quick break. I want to tell you about a podcast that you could check out. It is called The Science of Scaling by Mark Robert. 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 Different sales leaders from cool companies like Clavio, and Inanta, and Open AI. and he's asking about their strategies, their tactics, and how they're growing their companies as head of sales or chief revenue officer. If you're looking to scale a company up, if you're a CRO or a head of sales, that's 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