How Gary Vee Predicts The Next Facebook (Every Time)

Sean Puri
All right, we got Gary Vee in the house. Everybody knows Gary Vee because he's all over Twitter and Instagram and LinkedIn, and he's invested in Twitter and slack and Facebook before they ipo'd Gary's fun, we brought him on and our goal was, let's ask him a bunch of questions that we're genuinely curious about, like which of those investments actually paid off the most. And it was a very, very surprising number. We also talked about what he's excited about now, and we asked him about the mindset and what he noticed hanging out with people like Zuck or Logan Paul or different, different characters like that. So enjoy this episode with Gary Vee.

It's a good one. I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it. Like days off on a roll.

Sam Parr
Gary, what's going on, man? How are you? I think Sean saw something recently that you had posted that I thought everyone knew about you. Sean, what was that thing? The report card.

Sean Puri
Most podcasts start with an intro. We start with a little ball busting. So I have here Gary's high school report card, which you tweeted out to be fair, so I'm not putting anything out there you didn't already do, but I thought this is kind of amazing. So you tweeted out a picture of your high school report card. I'm just going to read off a few of your achievements.

Gary got a c in ceramics, a d in English, and f in German, P E. You got an a. That's the only a you have on this report card. I think algebra D. This one's kind of amazing.

Speech, which, like you are known for speech. You got a D. Driver's ed D. Gary, you were. What a turnaround.

What a turnaround. What's your reaction when you see this? That a lot of data in the world is dirty. It's fake data. And I think school grades are just not a tremendous indicator of what's going to happen.

Gary Vaynerchuk
The speech one is crazy. The report card I tweeted out was the recap of all four years of high school. So little fun facts to build on top of what you just said. I got an f in all four marking periods of German. One freshman year, I retook it sophomore year.

I got a d in the first marking period and then proceeded to get all f's. Failed language my freshman and sophomore year, and the state of New Jersey in 1994. If you did not pass two years of language, you could not graduate high school. So I walked into junior year, high school and took Spanish one with all these 9th graders as a junior. And I had the pressure on, and luckily I got misses.

Senora Kennedy saw something in me and forced me through the system. Otherwise, it was over for me. But, yeah, I mean, the speech one really stands out to your point, Sean, right? Like, to think that I got a d in speech, which was give a speech in class, right? Which I did.

Well, it's just that I, you know, I told my mom. My mom and I talked about this this weekend. I literally did not open a book in four years of high school and did zero homework. Like, you know, they would have. Everyone who's listening went through school, I think, like, they would assign a book report and, like, it's not that I did it poorly, it's that I didn't do it.

Just, like, did never. I literally, in four years of high school, did zero homework. Zero. Like, I. Something happened where I just knew that, you know, at that point, high school, I was already working in my dad's liquor store and selling a lot of baseball cards at shows and just kind of.

And it was, look, this is pre Internet. The world was different. I grew up in an immigrant family. We lived in, like, we just moved to, like, rural New Jersey. When I tell you we lived in our own little four five person cocoon.

My family, we really did. It was very, very, very, in hindsight, deeply immigrant. You know what I mean? Like, we didn't have, like, America. Like, my parents didn't have american parent friends.

Like, my mom wasn't friends with any of my high school friends parents. Like, my mom asked me about what I'm doing for college. February of my senior year, I was like, mom, it's over. I'm not going to college. She lost her mind and forced me to, like, go.

And I got, like, a postcard in the mail from Mount Ida. College filled it out, and that's literally how I went to college. So I think if I was growing up today, my intuition is that it would have been okay for me not to go to college, and it would have just all been handled differently. And honestly, I think my teachers would have said to me, like, I have a bright future, instead of saying what they did back then, which was, you're a loser. You're going to be a garbage man.

That was the big thing, Sean. Sam, in the nineties, your teachers would tell you, you're going to be a garbage man. Which I think is really crazy, because actually, it's a very good living with a high pay. That's a high pay scale. Our friend just started a garbage business, and he's doing like 300 grand a year of income.

Sean Puri
Joke's on you, Miss Kennedy. Yeah.

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With an AI powered help desk and a chatbot to handle your frontline tickets so you could scale support and drive retention and revenue. Visit HubSpot.com service to learn more. One of the things we do is always just, what are you excited about? Like, what products are you seeing? What people are you seeing?

What cool stories are you seeing that are kind of that you're genuinely excited about? Have you guys seen break the web? No. What's that? Dude, they got a great tagline.

Sam Parr
So it's a breaktheweb Co. The Internet's official scoreboard. This app's got my attention. Trending topics on Twitter was so big for me back in the day when it was desktop only. Break the web is an app.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Like, it's just what's trending right now. And it seems like the underlining tech is pretty damn strong. Like, you know how everybody loves to throw around AI or this and that, and you're like, if you're smart, you're like, this is just a collection of APIs or anything. Like, this one's a little bit better. And, like, I don't know.

I've put on my home screen, which is not something I've done in a long time. Why? Why do I like it? Well, yeah, I mean, it's like, I'm looking at it now. You just showed it to me.

Sam Parr
It was all the new stuff I don't really pay attention to. I don't like your. Yours. I saw the word Gaza trump and, like, five of the words where they're important. But, like, I don't.

I'm not going to, like, read, like, news. First of all, great observation, brother. For me as well. Like, honestly, something that's on my mind is everyone needs to consume less news. Cause all it does is push fear and negativity and, like, it's just so scary, like, how fucked up that is.

Gary Vaynerchuk
So it's funny saying, brother. I don't really click into that stuff. So right now, it's brand new. And when I met with the founders, I only met with them for like ten or 15 minutes. I asked them real quick, I'm like, can we get this categorized out?

They're like, yeah, that's on the roadmap. Like, I just want, I need pop culture and consumer trends. So, like, to me, I'm like, when I look at Madonna fan, I'm like, what is that? You know, Madonna mistakenly scolded a fan again. Right?

Now, what they're, what, what's interesting, though, is that it's a great indication of where we are in society. Like, back to when Twitter, Twitter trending topics, it was less political and, and it was really valuable. Like, the reason I like it or the potential of it. And obviously, we're in an election season, so now this will get eaten up to your point, Sam, on this stuff. But it is an indication of the pulse.

Like, I'm always looking for. What's the indication of the pulse of what people give a fuck about, dude. So these guys are, it looks like it only has 90 reviews. Oddly, both of these guys used to work at a bakery. The CEO worked at Pete's coffee.

Sam Parr
The other guy used to work at specialties cafe and bakery. So they're both lovers of baked goods. They decided to launch this. It's, it's three years old, though, but it's not popular yet. What do you, so what do you, what's your prediction?

This thing's going to be huge. There's no prediction. Back to shooting the shit. To your point, Sean, I'm not overly like, oh, break. The web is going to be the best.

Gary Vaynerchuk
The concept of date. So I have a new book coming out soon this year. Right. I finally feel like I've synthesized what I actually do. Like long form Twitter.

I think, literally have a meeting today where I'm going to post my hundred most successful YouTube videos on Twitter here over the course of the next couple months. Try to stagger it a little bit because it's just very clear that Twitter is going to push it. Right. I don't know if that's going to work. I think they're, I agree.

Sam Parr
I agree they're pushing it, but I just don't find myself using it that way. Yeah, that's a great call, Sam. Like, what I know is that I'm, I never have an interest in guessing if something's going to work. I have an interest in executing on anything that might work and then dealing with the ramifications of the upside. Why guess when you can test for cheaper than it is almost cost to guess, right?

Sean Puri
Like, it's not expensive to take your best of YouTube videos and have somebody repost. That's a easy way to learn because, you know, you talk about day trading attention, right? All trading is mispriced assets. And I would argue that attention is the most mispriced asset right now, that most impacts everyone. So why is, why is that there.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Is nobody that will ever listen to this that doesn't need attention as a currency to achieve what's in their stomach, whether they want to raise money for their PTA, be president of the United States, get more listeners through their podcast, sell their sneakers. They're the only asset class that I think is universal is attention. Even a parent trying to home parent two children need their kids to listen to them to be able to get the message across. The currency of listening is, or consuming is profound. And we're living through the mass fragmentation of that.

Right? If you think about let's use parenting, it was a lot easier to get your kids to listen when in 1954, 80% of families sat down and had dinner together for like an hour and a half, and you did it right. And like. So those parents were able to message in a very interesting way, whereas now they still can. We have technology.

You can send a text or a Sam and Sean clip to your kids to get them to think of something. But there's also so much supply, right? With the demand side being the same. There's only so many hours in a day. Now, the human brain, I think, has capacity to keep a lot more information than we think.

Nonetheless, for me, more narrowly, as someone who loves business and loves to think about it, it doesn't matter what you're selling, and it doesn't even matter what you're saying until you first get their attention. And then everything is about what you're saying. What's interesting to me is, I think of it. The acronym I use internally at Vaynerx Vaynermedia is PAC. Platforms and culture break the web plays in culture.

There's two different currencies that I think about constantly, or two different frameworks. One is platforms. What is, what are the top 25 platforms that have people's attention doing? What do they care about? From snap to Pinterest to LinkedIn to YouTube, even within themselves, YouTube shorts differently than YouTube.

This collective of like 1520 places, right, that really have, quote, unquote, the attention. What are they up to? How did their algorithms work? What are their features doing? And I think about them on a day to day basis, right?

And then, and then I think about culture. Like, what is the slang? What is. What is the things of interest, the people of interest, right? And then it becomes a framework of, like, what's overpriced and underpriced execution.

So, for example, I think Super bowl is the most underpriced media in the world. It's very hard to get 130 million people to watch 30 seconds of a video and actually want to and pay attention to it, right? So that seven $8 million vig I think is great. The problem is the creative is the variable of success. So the media might be a great deal, but if your 32nd video is forgettable or stinks or you overpaid for making it, Verizon paid beyonce to be in that commercial.

If they paid her $500,000, I think they stole her. If they paid 40 million, I think they overpaid for her. I don't know what the number is. My guess is it's somewhere in between. But that is basically how my brain works and how I think about communication and marketing and ram building and perception changing and just the whole world.

It's how I think about the world. Have you guys seen, let me tell. Let me ask if you guys have seen this in terms of cool shit. So perplexity is awesome, but they have this new thing. I didn't see them talk about it a lot.

Sam Parr
It's called Perplexity AI slash podcasts. They've come out with a daily podcast that's five to ten minutes long that's written by perplexity, and it has beautiful background music, and they've got this british guy. Have you ever seen those, like, planet earth videos where it's like, now we see the mother cheetah go out? David Adam. Yeah.

They've got this voice that sounds exactly like him reading like, the script, and it sounds awesome. The voice is powered by this thing called Eleven Labs. Dude, I went to eleven labs, Sean. I uploaded a ton of our voice, and I was like, fuck it. Let's just see if I can make a podcast.

It's way better. It's like, it's the best thing I've ever heard. Have you guys seen them come up with this podcast and see the voice? You ever wanna see Sam speak Hindi? Eleven Labs made a clip.

Sean Puri
They just translated the podcast, auto dubbed it using AI in indie, and it's phenomenal, by the way. It's something we've been working on for about a year. Like, I think next year is the full year where like, every single thing I do every video, every language. Like, we're there, dude. I haven't seen Sam, I haven't seen the podcast, but I just took.

Gary Vaynerchuk
No, like, I can't wait to listen to it. Like, look, it's so good. And they've not made a big. This has not been like a big hoopla. They haven't done.

Sam Parr
I randomly came across it. I was listening to it. I'm like, I'm going to listen to this every day. This is great. It's David Attborough telling me about, like, the news.

It sounds awesome. Uh, which lang. Which language you got to do? Should we do Hindi? Is that the one?

Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm doing everything? Like, yeah, if you're going to do one, you might as well do all. Yeah, just like, I just think that. I also think, like, everyone's going to go after the big, like, for example, I get excited about Portuguese. I'm like, fuck it.

Everyone's going to go to Mandarin and Hindi and, like, the big number, you know, I'm like, I'm just going to own Portugal and Brazil. Like, but that's tongue in cheek. I think the reality is, over the next three years, all of it's going to go down in cost so much that it won't even, like, the US in seven years are going to laugh that we ever had it just in one language. If they won't even understand. They're like, dude, have you ever seen.

Sean Puri
That talk that this guy Alex Schultz gave about Facebook's growth? He was the. He was the top Facebook growth guy. Like, early on when they created the growth team as him, chamath, and the guy, I think Javier, who now runs it, and he's like, he put a chart up and it was a YC talk, and he puts a chart up on the screen, there's a bunch of dots. He's like, all these dots are feature releases.

And you can see one dot where everything starts growing. Right after that, he goes, anyone want to take a guess what that dot is? People in the audience like, photos, photo tagging. It's when you release mobile. What is it?

We don't know. And he's like, language translation, local language translation. He goes, the biggest growth driver in Facebook's growth, bar none, was when we, when we localized the service, which he's like, was not easy. They actually, I don't know if, you know, this Facebook had to do like, a Wikipedia thing because there was, you know, there's 186 countries that they had to deal with. And so they were like, we need users to basically retranslate the site for their local region and they incentivized people to do that.

And that's how they mass translated overnight. No other social network did this and it took off. So that was the first time I heard about this. The second was when we did our basketball camp with Mister Beast, which Gary, I invited you to. You gotta come next time.

Mister Beast. Basically, we host a basketball camp at his house, and he did this presentation. He's like, he's like, here's one thing I'm doing that nobody else is really doing, which is every video I do, I now created channels in Portuguese and everywhere else. He told me, Jimmy told me that whole thing several years ago. Like, such a good bet, by the.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Way, tell me about this basketball camp, because I'm playing basketball tomorrow at 06:00 a.m. like, this is how much I love that. I'm 48. Like, you'll fit right in. There's plenty of wheelchairs and ice.

Sam Parr
And bags of ice, dude. It's hilarious. But I'm a nineties Knicks fan, so no easy layups. Is that politically correct in this basketball camp? Yeah, yeah, you can hack your heart away.

Sean Puri
It's all good. Actually, I wonder if you do anything like this. We do this thing where it's called camp MFM with my first million, MFM. So we, we were like, we like the idea of getting together. Like, you know, when you go to a conference, you end up having a good time.

If you go speak somewhere, you end up having a good time. But there's kind of this dread in my stomach of like, fuck, yet another conference. Like, I just don't want to do the boring. I just, I guess, have a resistance of doing the same thing everyone else is doing in general. And so we were like, how do we get the benefits of going and networking without ever calling it networking or a conference or anything else?

And so we created basically an adult summer camp. It was like, what if for a weekend we just rented a house? And in this case, we actually just stay at Mister Beast House now because he ended up wanting to come. And so we, we go to his house and then we bring in a trainer from the NBA. He treats us like we're, you know, washed up NBA players.

Basically puts us through their program and we just play ball all day. When is it? One just happened, but it was big. It was like the founder of Airbnb, Mister Beast, all these guys. Joe is the best.

Gary Vaynerchuk
I have an email from Joe that says, gary, we're fans. We want you to look at our company. And it was joeirbedandbreakfast.com dot. And I never saw it, you know, or maybe I did and just like. But I look at that email, I have it on a separate laptop, and I look at it once in a while just to, like, I love it.

I like, this is actually a fun segue back to chopping it up. If it was just us three and everyone's just this where we're going, where do you guys sit on losing? So we just talked about basketball. So I was just thinking about me going to this basketball thing. And my favorite thing in basketball in pickup is to lose the first game.

It is my favorite. And I talked about this on Steve Bartlett's podcast. I got a billion fucking emails about this. There's something that just, like, the blood in my head, everything transforms in my chemicals and then everything in life, like, everything stops. And the only thing that matters to me in the world is that we have to win game two.

Sean Puri
That's so funny. Said that when we did the camp, the same thing happened the very first game. I'm trying to be the host of the event, so I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah, you guys play. I'll sit out first. No problem.

We get in, I'm like, I'm passing the ball. I'm like, oh, that's Joe Gebbia. Let me not. Let him drive. I'm not gonna try to hurt the founder of Airbnb or Mister Beast.

Oh, that was cool, man. I see someone taking a video, I'm like, that's gonna be a cool clip. That's gonna go viral. Then I'm like, wait, fuck that. I'm in the clip.

He's scoring on me. And I was like, he's no longer mrBeast. That's Jimmy, and that's Joe. And now we're competing to win. And then the whole event got a lot more fun when it equalized everybody, all the job titles dropped.

And it's basically, who's here to win? Who's here to play? And that's when it got real. It's why I love entrepreneurship. Where I was, where I'm going with this is that email, like, excites me, you know?

Gary Vaynerchuk
Like, I'm like, yeah, eat it, Gary. Like, dude, that one would have been. A bigger one for you than Uber, too. No, it wouldn't have. Maybe, but no, because I was the.

They both probably believe it or not, this is how much startups were back then. They both would have been priced between four and 8 million. That's crazy. Right? I know, bro.

I got into Tumblr's b round. B. Series B. Not angel, not seed, not series a. I got into Tumblr series B.

This is actually it, right here is my Twitter, Tumblr Facebook stock. I got into Tumblr's series B at a $14 million valuation. That's, like, precede now. That was literally 2007 or eight, right? We're only talking 16 years ago.

So, like, you guys are young dudes. So think 16 years ahead. How old will you be in 16 years, Sean? Dude, I don't even want to know. 52, 50?

I don't know what, Sam, how old am I? Right? Honestly, no bullshit. I don't know if you guys hang out with, like, 60, 70, 80 year old business people. Like, I do a lot of that because it's the best.

I mean, to me, the two extremes are the best, right? Hang out with the 17 year olds that are, like, shitting listening right now, shitting on all of us, saying, these fuckers. Wait till they see what I'm gonna do. And then 73 year olds who are like, just like, the amount of 60, forget, I think, is, like, literally children, 70 and 80. 70 and 80.

To me, just. It's stunning to me how many 73, 75, 77 year old businessmen and women I know that go at it because they love it. It's still what they do. And it gets me excited because at 48, it's like, man, I'm still like, I'm in halftime, right? Like, I'm in, like, you know, I get excited about that.

Sean Puri
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Listen to DTC pod wherever you get your podcasts. I wanted to ask you about that. So I think you and I kind of have similar backgrounds where it was, like, raised around, like. Like, kind of a rough crowd every once in a while. Yes.

Sam Parr
And still kind of have a little bit of that where, like, I enjoy, like, doing, like, hood rat shit every once in a while. Same. And Gary, Sam's nickname on the pod is hose water because he's just. No water fountains, baby. Just drink it straight out the hose water par.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Dude, I loved, man. Hose water was the best, dude. Summer hose water. I drank out of the hose literally, from 1980, 419, 82 to 1988. Dude, I peed in the backyard more than I peed in the toilet.

Sam Parr
They used to call me, look, my no hands, like, every day. So, listen, I had a question. So you. So, look, we're all three probably a little bit similar where it's like, we kind of, like, did a bunch of scrappy stuff. And now, Gary, you're older and a little further along in your career in terms of success than we are.

But we've both done some interesting, or we've all done interesting things where we're able to hang out with some of these guys who are, like, legitimate billionaires. I'm sure you're. I don't know if you are or not, but you're in that. You're in that ballpark. And I see with Michael Rubin and whatever, you know, you hang out with some of the shot callers of the world.

What do you think is the difference between the store owner who's doing, like, you know, a retail guy doing half a million or a million dollars a year, the $10 million a year business, the $100 million net worth person, and the billion dollar net worth person. Do they all have similar ish mindsets, just maybe luck or industry? They picked the. Right. A different industry.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, two things. It's. It's 1234. I still don't know why 1111 has everyone's attention and 1234 doesn't. The 1234 is just so cool.

Sean Puri
Should we make a wish real quick? But we should start a trend and try to make 1234 matter for entrepreneurs.

Gary Vaynerchuk
That's a really fucking fun question, Sam. My brain, as you were asking it. Goes focused on 1234. Well, yeah, I just happened to look over and see it. I always thought about 1234.

I've always thought it was interesting that it has no pop culture relevance. I believe the first thing that goes through my mind on this question is risk tolerance and fear. Right. So I just had an idea. 1234, I got.

Sean Puri
I get it. I want. I got to use it. 1234 should be where you shoot your shot. I love that.

When you see 1234, that's when you got to send that text. You got to send the tweet. You got to send the email right there. That's the idea for 1234. We can make this a thing.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Can you get somebody to register like 1234 dot? I feel like, you know, I don't want these hustler kids, like the 13 year old me would listen to this and immediately register 1234 dot. I think it's fear. I think about my dad a lot. My dad.

I think it's how people view their ability to go backwards. So I think there's something very scary about my chemicals. And, Sam, I've always felt this in you as well. It's funny that you brought it up. I don't know if you.

I don't know you well enough to know this, and I'm not even sure you're going to believe me when I say it, but I do think you have a good shot of understanding what I'm about to say. My favorite rocky is rocky six when he goes back to Philly with nothing. Yeah, Sean. There's something so weird in me, and it's almost like, am I sandbagging myself? I'm going to be very vulnerable here.

I don't view it as I'm cool. I actually view it as I'm potentially flawed. There's something in me that romanticizes being okay with it all falling down. I'm back in, like, queens in a $400 a month apartment. The entire Internet is like, see, he was fucking overrated.

I told, you know, all the people that love me, all the friends they have that don't love me are like, see, your fucking guy was a loser. He fucked it up. He sucks. I don't know why I like that. But I believe, Sam, to answer your question, it's something to do with that chemical.

I believe the people that. I think you brought up some good stuff. I think a lot about. If my dad had a supermarket instead of a liquor store, I would have taken that to way bigger heights because liquor was. You couldn't ship it.

Sam Parr
And, you know, like, that's, like, the luck component. Yeah, there's a ton of serendipity. Like, honestly, I think a lot about if my dad didn't want me to work in his store, I would have went to. Cause I fell in love with tech. I might've went to California.

Gary Vaynerchuk
And who the fuck knows what I've created in 95 670. Like, could have had one of those Mark cuban moments. I think about that. Or you know, like, I think when you can sell, when you can. For all the.

Everyone who's listening, and if you have kids like this, if you can sell, you're in the game, right? Like, if you can sell your. You'll never be, like, zero, right? And so what do you got here? Is 1234.com available?

Sam Parr
No, dude, 1234 is owned by, like, a telecom. Yeah, that's what I figured. That's impossible. I like the one, like, the 137. Yeah, do that.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Um. Are you kidding me, dude, I love that.

Sean Puri
That was. I'm so pumped about this, bro. The funny thing, by the way, Ben, my guy, he texted us a screenshot of Godaddy one. It's 1234 dot 15,000. He just said, pull the trigger, question mark.

Gary Vaynerchuk
No, no, don't. Don't pull that one. We're good. Actually, it's a good one. I never think you should overpay for names.

Cause I think names are made, dude. I agree. I agree. Right, Sam? But do you know who disagrees?

Sam Parr
Fucking Dharmesh. Dharmesh at. I know, dude. I've been with them multiple times. So Dharmesh founded HubSpot, which bought my company.

And I've gotten close with him. He's like, he's like, dude, I bought chat.com or chat.com today. I'm like, why? He goes, cause it was available. I was like, what are you gonna do with it?

He's like, I'm not sure, but I might figure something out. But I pay eight figures for it. Yeah, look, he's smart. He knows, like that, you know? Look, as long as doc, I mean, to me, the scary thing for, let me.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Let me take a step back, not go too fast. He's smart enough to know he could probably flip that because it's a very, very, very big deal. On the flip side, there is a little concern for me of what happens when this no longer becomes the remote control of our society. Right? Like, I'm very fascinated by 20 years from now.

Talk about 16 years ago on Tumblr, 16 years from now, if you told me that 16 years from now we live in a predominant VR world, I would be like, maybe I can see that possibility. You could see that it's pushing in a direction. I don't think it's going to end up being these Apple Pro, Google Glass, snap, the Facebook thing, quest. My intuition is that it's going to have to be much more lightweight. But I never underestimate the human being.

I'm positive somebody's going to make the contact lenses that work like this. And then we're off to the races. Because now back to the way I think about day trading. Attention. This no longer houses the attention.

Now it's housed here. Whoever controls that paradigm wins big. And then all of a sudden, does.com even matter? Nat, is that how the UI UX works? Because.com didn't matter at all in 1990.

Sean Puri
Dude, that's how I feel about SEO businesses right now with, well, that's exactly right. If it's chat, GPT, and Google's just trying to give you the answer. That's why Vaynermedia never did search. When I started the company 14 years ago, everyone's like, what the fuck? Why don't you do search?

Gary Vaynerchuk
And I was like, first of all, I thought if I built a very big company, I'd be able to m and a search if I wanted to add it, right? It was already established. I grew up on search the decade, the 15 years before. And so here's a good one for the kids. If you're building towards the future, if you're capable, remember that you could always buy the current.

And that's how I thought about search. I was going to master social in those nine, and I felt like social was going to eat up search anyway. And I think it's starting to happen now. Like, search is in a weird spot. Like, Google's in a weird spot.

Like, in. It's in a great spot in some ways. But yeah, I think search is definitely a different world. Like, if your business, I actually spoke to somebody Thursday who is really getting hurt because he was one dimensional on search. And that's such a fear of mine that if you sell your stuff via email, via your podcast, via social media content, via search, you must develop into a swiss army knife because if you're just a fork, if you're just one dimensional, you're going to get caught.

Sam Parr
Hey, Gary, let me ask you about that. You were saying a second ago, you're like, I'm not afraid to go back. Yes. Do you? So, like, the way that I run my personal finances is I've got, like, my safety net.

So I've got this, like, account that has enough money that I'm good forever. And so that's in vanguard and bonds. And it's like, I've never touched that. And then anything above that amount, I'll bet it, and I'll start new. Shit.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Same. So you're talking about like, you don't mind going back, but it sounds like that's not exactly how you'd run your finances. So, do you have, like, a safety net and then anything above that, you're like, dude, or do you just use profits from Vayner to make these bets? How do you. How does that work?

Yes, I have. I'm gonna be uncomfortably transparent. My. I'm very fortunate. So my zero is a million dollars.

But that's it. That's it, Sam. Wait, so you only keep a million in your, like, liquid portfolio? That's your safety net? No, no, no.

I have. I have other things. Like, I have money in all sorts of places, but I have this one place that has $1 million, and literally everything else is in play. Wow. Now, Sean, I want to paint a very clear picture here, because I don't want to create hyperbole.

I haven't bet everything on everything, but if I ever feel the way I felt about Facebook in 2007, when I put. I had $236,000 in savings, I put 200,000 into Facebook. Right. If that ever happens again, like, I'm willing to bet very large, because that feeling, similar to the feeling I felt about the Internet when I saw it in 95, similar to the feeling that I felt about friendster, MySpace, that little, like, oh, the Internet's changing. I look for those moments, and again, I'm willing to go big.

But to your point, Sam, it's not like I'll go to zero. Zero. You know, a million dollars is a lot, a lot of money, and especially if you're capable. If you're capable, like, I don't know. Like, I feel very reputation.

Yeah, correct. I also think about face off, like, where you change. Like, I have, like, these very, like, deep. Sean. It goes back to, like, wanting to win a basketball game.

Like, I think it's more. I think the worst thing for my love of entrepreneurship that's happened is what Sam just said. I no longer can do it without anyone knowing. It's a whole different game. It was so fun when people didn't know.

Sean Puri
What you're saying reminds me of, well, two things. I think it's super interesting that your answer to what's the difference? You've seen in the mindset and the psychology was who's willing to go backwards? And almost what you said was, you almost kind of crave. There's, like, a romantic idea about going back, which I like a lot.

I resonate with that a lot. It's almost like there's tv shows I wish I could go watch again for the first time in the same way. Like, there's no greater feeling than going from not making it to making it. Once you've made it and you try to make more, it doesn't have the same thrill, adventure, satisfaction, self respect. You have to almost go into different games.

Gary Vaynerchuk
I worry about that. Let me rephrase. I don't worry about it, but I sense that there's a day where I actually. I talk a lot about never retiring and dying at my desk. And then there's an equal part of me that realizes that I'm very wired in a way, where I just might wake up at 79 and be like, you know what?

Like, I'm done. I'm just gonna focus on my grandchildren. Like. Like, I just. I don't know.

I have. Like, I think we're all very, like. I think we underestimated how long life is. I think we underestimate our capacity to make hard decisions to different directions that we can't see along the way. Then there's back to luck.

And, I mean, look, we've lived through a lot of prosperity. The three of us have gotten very fortunate of where we lived during what era, right? There's a lot going on in the world. There was people in the roaring twenties talking shit like this over dinner. And then a very challenging 30 years punched him in the face, right?

And it all seemed so great. In 1927, America was on its way. It's gonna be awesome. And then a massive world war and the atomic bomb and Korea and Vietnam and social unrest. And so all these things are fun to think about.

It's fun to romanticize about the future. But I will say this. I'm actually going to ask you guys this. What do you think your personal relationship is with gratitude versus taking for granted? I changed on that once.

Sam Parr
I actually sold my company and was financially free. And then, like, two weeks after the sale of the company, the CEO got into a life threatening accident, and I was like, oh, that could have ruined my deal. And, like, everything, like, this all could have been ruined. And then I, like, hit, like, some threshold. I'm like, dude, I did not work any harder than anyone else.

Who else? Like, who have done similar things but failed? This is 100% luck. And I'm so grateful that I, like, it just has worked in my way. In many ways, I feel like I am the luckiest guy around, and it just seems like I'm so gracious for the luck that I have.

It's changed more. I've just been gifted this, and I'm so lucky, and I'm thankful. Good for you, Sam. Sean, where are you at with it? I have a different.

Sean Puri
So to me, I'm like, all right. I think people make a mistake. They're grateful in the macro. So if you say to somebody, you're like, what are you grateful for? Almost everybody.

My family, my health. And to me, this is the. I'm not saying they're wrong, obviously, those are great things. But it's sort of like when a company says our values are integrity and excellence, it's true, but not useful. It basically has me, leaves no register.

And so I try, my focus is, how do you be grateful in the micro? Meaning can I be, if I'm in an elevator, can I find something in that moment? Can I get a rep, a practice rep of gratitude in that? Because that actually shifts me. When I can take a breath, be grateful for the fresh air, I can look at something my kid is doing and how silly they are and just in that moment find something.

And if I could do that 1015 times a day, that is, you know, like the antidote, you know? Yeah, I think that's how micro and macro and micro work together. I really do think of it as being alive. Like, just thank you for that. I'm not that I didn't die last night.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Right. Like, and I, to your point, I think when you're macro, is that I think you're actually, I think I love what you said. You're just talking about applying. Yeah, that's how I apply it. Exactly.

Sean Puri
That's my relationship with it. Yeah, that's right. But, like, if you're getting to that place, that's how I live. I'm like, like, literally, like, it's like a nice sunny day in New York today, and I'm just like, yeah, that's awesome. You know, like, like, just choosing positivity.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Like, I think people have been so sucked into, like, focusing on what they don't have or what. What's not going well. Naval has an amazing definition of happiness, by the way. I don't know if you've ever heard this. He goes, happiness is what you feel when you don't feel like anything's missing in your life, right?

Sean Puri
People think happiness is something. You gotta achieve something. You gotta go create something. You gotta get. It's like, you know, you think you need to accumulate things to have happiness.

And he's like, actually, it's just when you're not focused on what's missing. Well, that's right. I think simplicity is just so fucking. Fuck, man. It's so right.

Sam Parr
But your life is not simplistic. I mean, I don't know what your personal life is like. I don't know if you have multiple homes and what you own, but your professional life is not simplistic. I'll tell you why it's simplistic. I'm not attached to my professional success or who I am.

Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm, like, in a very weird place with my winning and losing and my Gary v of it all. Like, I care so much, but it's a game. My professional life is a game. Right? I don't want to be unhappy.

Like, I fight for happiness too much. And I think it is in the simplicity. You're right. The day to day is chaotic. There's meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting.

Right? But I like it. I like juggling 17 balls, and I'm not upset about the 13 that fell on the ground and broke. And more importantly, I'm not worried about the people who are watching me juggle. Boo.

When the ball breaks. That, I think, is massive. Yeah. But when Theo Vaughn makes fun of you, it's pretty hilarious. That is, like, the ultimate, like, because I love Theo.

Like, like, to me, back to, like, where we came from, sam, I'm like, my God. Like, I've gotten to a place where someone as epic as Theodon or any other comedians, Tim Dillon. Like, I love these guys. I'm always fascinated when people struggle with a comedian razzing. Like, I think it's like, you've.

That's, like, such flattery. Yeah. That was awesome. It was awesome. I saw that.

Sam Parr
I was like, oh, the guy I look up to, he's. He's crossed over to mainstream. It's awesome. Sean, what were you gonna say? Well, I wanna ask two questions.

Sean Puri
One, uh, you showed those stock certificates on the wall. Speaking of winning, uh, I saw. Okay, you invested in Twitter and zero nine slack pre IPO. I think the liquid death guy we used to work with. You work for you?

Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah. Literally worked at VaynerMedia the day before he started liquid death. Facebook pre IPO. I'm curious. What was.

Sean Puri
What investment was the best investment for you? What paid off in terms of. You've made a bunch of bets, right, and that those are the winners. Facebook. I haven't sold one share yet.

Sam Parr
Oh, shit. That's insane. But that goes back. Insanely good. Yeah.

Gary Vaynerchuk
That goes back to jockey over horse. I tell all my friends who get into investing, I'm like, man, what have you learned? I'm like, what I've learned is when I only invested in the person, I've hit this new state where I'm really trying to be obsessed with the person and the idea. And if either one isn't like an a that I'm like, eh, right. You said and.

Or. And, right, okay, but. And the horse. That's right. But if I or it fully person not idea.

Sam Parr
What year did you do that? Did you do that deal? Facebook? Like 2007. Oh, my God.

So, I mean, I don't even know what that you'd be up 400 times. I don't know. I mean, a lot, a lot. 100 x at least. I want to get your rapid, rapid take because I know you've.

Sean Puri
One of the things we do on this pod is we kind of. We love anecdotes and also little. Little insights on people that we think are wired in an interesting way. Maybe not even the way we want to be wired. Right.

Like, Elon's really interesting. We don't think he's perfect. We think there's a bunch of things he does that are cringe. We think there's a bunch that he does that are epic. So I'm curious.

You've bumped into or have studied or have an opinion on any of these people. So I want to go rapid fire. See if you have something. Give us. Give us, like, either an opinion or story.

Gary Vaynerchuk
So, yeah, so is this from outside observation or either way, if I map them inside observation. Either one. Or if you have nothing, you could say, pass. I don't have anything on there. All right, so first one I want to do is Zuck.

Sean Puri
You've talked about Facebook and the jockey. Give me zuck. Dude, I think he's uncomfortably underrated. Like, he's the only person that I met back in zero seven. Like, in this era now I think it's getting more obvious.

Gary Vaynerchuk
But he understood attention. He literally tried to buy Twitter. He bought Instagram, he bought WhatsApp. He tried to buy snap. He just understood attention was the only asset.

And. And he's so nice. He's a nice kid. Like. Like, he's just a very simple, nice kid.

I'm happy with the way things are going for him a little bit right now. Like, people can see how, like, doofy he is. Like, you see him, like, in the corner of the UFC thing, and you're like, this is just a nerdy kid who's like. You know what I mean? Like, and he doesn't give a fuck.

Now, people will think it's because he's got a trillion, but, like, it. It's just. He's just like a dentist's son from cadet. Like, he's just a fucking nerd with no bad intent who fucking spent his childhood coding, which put him in a position, right? He put in the hours.

I'm a fan, man. I think he's a, I think he's a very good operator. And the reason I've never sold a share of Facebook is I've been committed for a long time in this, in my own mind, which was, I'll never sell until he's gone. Logan Paul. So do you know that Logan Paul was starting to emerge very little on vine when Vaynermedia for Virgin mobile did a campaign called finding the next vine?

Sean Puri
You guys kind of discovered him, right? Like, when he was, I think he had, like, 15 or 18,000 followers at the time. It was crazy and full, by the way, full disclosure, Jerome jar, who was one of the ten most followed people on mine, who was my partner. Jerome and I launched the first influencer agency called Grape Story back in 13. He was the one who said, you know, he let me pick from three people.

Gary Vaynerchuk
I think all three of them got big. But I think Logan is, you know, he grew up in the limelight, right? You think about, like, what happened in Japan or all this stuff. Like, it's tough. These kids are.

You think about child stars. When we grew up, we all knew that, like, child stars would be fucked up, right? And now I think, like, everyone's going through that. The limelight is hard. So I think Logan is well intended.

I think he's very entrepreneurial. Like, very entrepreneurial. And I, you know, I've always thought of him as, like, a marky mark or a fresh prince or the rock, meaning I always watched him from afar. And as I got to know him a little bit, I was like, okay, this kid is Logan Paul today. Just like Marky Mark was Marky Mark before he was Mark Wahlberg, just like the fresh prince of Bel Air.

You know, what will smith was before he was Will Smith. I've always thought that Logan would cross over, and he has, obviously, with WWE in a lot of ways that I think that will continue. Like, if you told me Logan is, like, an action star and is, like, at the, like, the way John Cena was at the Academy awards last night, like, is Logan doing that in 15 years? I'm like, that makes sense to me. That's how he's wired.

Sean Puri
Sam, he's only 28. He's only 28 years old. The dude basically, like, when he was 14 or whatever, like, one he won in the social media game. Now he, and then think about the pivots right. Both him and Jake.

But the thing about the pivots, now he's got impulsives. Who's got the podcast where he's super chill. It's the opposite of crazy vine prankster guy. He pivoted to like, he's the guy asking questions. He's inquisitive, he's curious.

He's got, like, you know, the popular podcast goes, WWE becomes the champion in WWE creates prime, which is going to make him a billionaire by the time he's 28, 29 years old now. Because prime is probably going to be worth tens of billions if, you know, they did, I think, 2 billion in sales last year. I'm in this world. Like, prime is definitely like a two, depending on the time they decide to trade it. It's 23456 7 billion.

Sam Parr
That high seven. I talked to Mister Beast and he was like, 20 billion is where prime is going. Like, that would be very, very, I mean, that's like, look, I never underestimate Jimmy's foresight because he's great. I've known him a long time, but just being in m amp A at CPG levels, my intuition is that they won't be patient enough to get to that big of a number. Right?

Gary Vaynerchuk
Like, well, the beauty is they're not operating. The other guys are. They got the other guys operating. Yeah. They're pretty young, too, though.

Yeah. And more importantly, like I said, shit changes. Like, everything's ha ha ha until it's actually in front of you. It's all kicks and giggles. And we're going to 20 until you fly to Atlanta and Coca Cola actually offers you 5.9.

And you've got to sit there as KSI and Logan and those guys and say, okay, if we say yes, because you know what they're going to say. You guys are like this. So you're going to really understand what I'm about to say. You know what they're going to say? They're going to say, huh, we can do this right now.

And then in 24 months, start a new thing, a shampoo or a deodorant, and sell it to dub. Like, so. I think it's, it'll be interesting to see how long they hold their breath. And don't forget, one bad year, you guys know this, how businesses work. One bad year takes a lot of leverage off the table in a negotiation.

And so, you know, they'll be thoughtful about that, because no matter what you are, once you saturate distribution, and don't forget, they're selling on something that's more like supreme. Right? They're selling on cool. Cool. Yeah, right?

Kids are buying it, literally, to drink it for the status symbol, like a fashion brand. And that can only last so long. Z cavaricis were only cool for so long. Those are. The fuck is it?

Sean Puri
That's the point. Me and you have no Ricci reference was for all the Jersey boys that grew up in the late eighties, early nineties. People were, google it. They were the hottest jeans. Pants.

Gary Vaynerchuk
If you didn't wear your nothing, I didn't have them, by the way. I was in great life, but they. Were fucking it compared prime to Jinko jeans. What are you gonna say, Sean? Well, I asked you a bunch of names that are, you know, basically names that people know.

Sean Puri
I'm curious. Who do you think is dope? Who are you learning from? And who are you kind of admire? Who do you admire?

Who do you learn from? Who are you inspired by? Cause, okay, a lot of people are inspired by Gary Vee. Who is Gary Vee inspired by? That's a great question.

Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm a little weird on this one, but I'm glad I brought up break the web. I'm, like, inspired by the collective more than an individual. The field. Yeah, I love the field, brother. I just, like, I spend almost all of my time on the collective, so I don't even have the allocation of time.

I also am very inspired by the following person. Show me the person that's currently living through massive adversity. Like somebody's. Listen, I'll tell you somebody who's ten times more inspiring to me than I think I am or deserve to be to others. Show me the kid that's listening right now whose father passed away from a stroke.

He's 16. He's got three younger siblings, and his mom has to now work two jobs. And he's holding it down for the fam, right? He's literally a sophomore in high school, and he's basically the father figured out for three siblings, he had to quit the fucking football team. Cause he's also like.

Like, I'm the son of two parents who lost a parent before they were 15. And back to gratitude. I think I got really fucked up by being scared that my parents were gonna die my whole childhood. But it kind of converted into this gratitude framework that's insane. It makes me unstoppable, you know?

And so, yeah, for me, it's less Bezos or Elon or, you know, you know, oprah or anything. It's. It's much more like someone none of us know, that is really in it. That bodega owner energy, that. That stuff I grew up with, and I fuck with it.

But that person, I think, has it lucky. Back to earlier, our simplicity. Like, owning your own little business, living within your means, like. Like, that's fucking kind of chill. Could be really epic.

It doesn't put you on, like, this podcast, but it's like a great life in a lot of ways. And I see it a lot. I lived it. What? Building my dad's business from 22 to 34.

I. Not that person. The one that's like, back to your point, Sam. The spin of the wheel really created real adversity. I'll say it again, and not a peep of complaining.

There's a very small group of kids that get that and they just convert into leader. Instead of woe is me or rebelling. I admire that level of tenacity and grit and accountability and fucking, like, fuck it. Like, this is. I got.

This is this. It's on me. I gotta put this shit on my shoulders. I'm gonna do this for my three siblings. Like, I admire the fuck out of that kid.

Sean Puri
I wrote down a quote when I was doing the research for this that I think is exactly what you're talking about. You go forget rags to riches. Some people are just rags to rags just so that their kids have a shot at rags to riches. And I respect the shit out of that. I love that quote.

Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you for finding that. I really, man, I'm really affected by that. Like, Sam really hit it on the head. Like, I hate the word luck because I think that people weaponize it against people that have worked really hard. But I believe in serendipity and luck quite a bit because it's just the way, like, I was born in the Soviet Union.

Like, I got lucky to get out of there when I did. If I didn't, I would have come to this country in 1991. When it fell, I would have been 1617. I'd sound like Ivan Drago on these podcasts. It would have been all different.

And I just really do admire people who. I really do think entitlement and lack of accountability has become a disease in first world countries in 2024. And I just really admire people who play the other way. We appreciate you doing this, man. You got day trading attention coming out, I think, on May 21, right?

That sounds right. You're the man. We appreciate you hanging out. Thanks for coming on, man. I gotta jump to this board meeting.

I appreciate it. All right, take care. Love you guys. Good luck. I feel like I can rule the world I know I could be what I want to I put my all in it like no days off on a road less travel never look and be bag.

Sean Puri
I feel like I can rule the world I know I could be what I want to I put my all in it like no days off on a road less travel never look and be bag.

Gary Vaynerchuk
I feel like I can rule the world I know I could be what I want to I put my all in it like no days off on a road less travel never look and be bag.

I feel like I can rule the world I know I could be what I want to I put my all in it like no days off on a road less travel never look and be bag.

How Gary Vee Predicts The Next Facebook (Every Time)

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1: Introduction

2: Investment Insights

3: The Value of Resilience

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