How Gary Vee runs 7 businesses

0:00 Well, And this is gonna be one of the highlights that I know from this meeting, uh this podcast. I love that I said meeting. This feels more like a business meeting than why you guys are so successful. I feel like I can rule the world, I know I could be what I want to. Gary, let me ask you a hard hitting question. I've known you now for A few years, a while now.

0:22 Do you own a computer? А' с фінаком. Uh for four or five years. it going into Covid. So what what year did you buy your first laptop? I went full phone.

0:37 Because 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

0:48 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 honesty, he's like, Honestly guys, this is This is bad. I don't know what

1:13 I don't even know what I'm doing. We go, just click in Chrome because what's Chrome? He didn't even know what Glue Fall was. Because I don't think I have one of those. It's 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 o the opposite, right? Like my open claw. Computer's like the most important thing in my life, right? It's just so fascinating. Wait, what what are you doing with Open Claw, Gary? I mean lots of things. I think with OpenClaw specifically

1:42 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 there. Chief of staff is with them in every s meeting. So there'd be like so much context lost, right? Like in a meeting, so much opportunity missed. So the f one of the first things I've done with open claw is it might even happen here. I might literally take a photo.

2:07 of this screen sent to my open 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 a 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 it's just like scaling all my favorite things about Humans is definitely step one for me. You just said something about relationships and you have this guy, Nick Dio. Yes. I think you I don't know if he's still with you, but this this fascinated me.

2:51 He 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 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

3:07 In essence, he's been with me for 12 years, started as an intern, grew up in Vader Media. I trust him to represent me to some degree. Because I can't be everywhere. And about two, three years ago I realized My favorite thing. About business. As people

3:24 It's 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. I just like the people part. And Nick just became another version of that, which is like I can't be everywhere and Who's got a better job than Nick? Go around the world.

3:40 And Listen carefully if there's something we could do something for someone For karma! Right. Like no KBI. No ROI. Like Like pay attention.

3:54 And Nick, you know me so well. You you know we have so much to give. Just keep your ear to the ground. You know, figure out who's got the right intent. Figure out who's talking shit and not talking shit. Like who's good. Who's good from my perspective. I got a DM from you.

4:10 And I don't think I you could have said it, and there's a chance I didn't read it uh closely, but it said like, Hey, I'm gonna be in Austin doing a good dinner. Yes. I just said yes. And then I just got sent an invite and the invite, like I said, it could have said the details, but I show up And it's like fifty people. It was at a very wealthy person's home, this like Microsoft executive's home. Yep.

4:28 And I'm like Hey, where's Gary? They're like Oh he he's not here, but I'm here. I'm Nick and I'm hosting it on his behalf. And I met like Yours was yours was felt like more of a Robotope? Yeah. No, but I I want to give you credit. I don't think I read it. There's a chance I didn't read it, but I get there and I met like I remember that party because I was one of the bigger ones. It was never alluded to like I apologize I apologize if we didn't word it well, but I remember the context. Like we weren't trying to trick you to meet the name of the thing. No, I don't think so. And I bet like I met this cool dude named Hunter. Do you know Hunter w I think his name's Woodall? He's got one leg and he uh like one in the Paralympics. He was badass. I met like all these like it was like This athlete, this Microsoft executive, this person, this person. I met all these cool guys. Um, it was awesome.

5:10 Which is the easiest way, by the way, to spread good karma and good 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, that is a that it was one of the 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

5:34 You know relationships that you just can't scale. You're a human, right? And so like I end up with like these unlimited Business acquaintances that I wish I could take to the next step. And Nick helps me scale that a little bit by decoding a little bit because I trust his intuition. He's been with me a long time, grew up with me, and he represents me well.

5:53 And he's smart and And And I trust him, so then when he hits me and says, Hey. This p person really needs a new marketing person. Like this is how When I'm long gone, I think good stories will come out. Like this is a true example. Hey.

6:07 This kid's got a good D D C brand. It's gone from zero to twenty million. We're not an investor. In the company. I have no best in Interest. They just lost their head of marketing. He was like over dinner talking in a group of twelve like he stressed and worried.

6:20 And then three weeks earlier, one of my best people at Bayner came to me. You know. uh 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'cause we're doing it at such scale. Then eventually the truth becomes your actual reputation.

6:50 I think On the surface, it's like, okay, great. So this guy hosts dinners, that's cool. Sounds like he's he's got a mandate to spread good karma and just help people. That's cool. I 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 said LeBron James spends a million dollars a year on his body. Yeah, people went nuts and this went everywhere. This is like a global thing. Other athletes turn on to this. And I w I was thinking about it the other way. I was like, first of all

7:16 Obviously. This guy's a billion dollar athlete. For him to spend a million dollars a year on his body, that's like I'm a Seuss, a trainer, good sh a chef, and there's nothing. He should be spending three, four times that if if anything. Second is What a great

7:30 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 know, my executive coach, for example He spent a million dollars getting coaching himself from the best in different disciplines. He would overpay and say, How do I get How do I go do an immersion with you? I know you usually do once a week, but I want to do immersion'cause he's like, I wanna be the best coach. So I'm gonna go learn all the modalities from the best teachers of those modalities.

7:55 And I just think everybody should ask this and y what you're doing with Nick to me is the equivalent of LeBron James spends a million dollars a year on his body. Gary spends 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 w be the wind in their sales. I have three full time employees at Bayner X. Who hosts? influencers that are emerging

8:17 To walk through the office. And meet brand heel teams to maybe get them brand deals on pure karma. Yeah. See that's amazing. And I think that that that type of investment it Only comes from first principles. Doing good things for people.

8:31 Is Literally. the highest ROI and lowest risk thing, and most people think it's the highest risk thing. Because they're when they're doing something good, they're not doing something good, they're doing something calculated. With the expectation, or at least minimumly.

8:47 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. That's Sam, to your point. I didn't do this the first thirty years of my career. Like I got to a place Where I could afford

9:03 Investing in that. Yeah, but uh what I was gonna ask you is I think that you've always you from from what I could tell, you've always defaulted to hiring a lot of people. I think that's like um 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 it works out nicely in terms of profit. How do you like justify doing some of these things that don't make any sense financially, knowing that like when 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.

9:42 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 А шотсед. And are tactical. Versus how humanity actually works and business actually works.

9:58 Like if you're g and 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'Hannion was at one of our events. And

10:11 He checked me in the best way possible. We were talking about how, yeah, we wanted to get this great group together. There's you know, we don't charge anything. I pay for this whole event out of pocket. I pay like a quarter million dollars a year just to host this event. And it's like Look, I asked nothing in return, which it's all about, you know, just having a really And everybody's like this. We're all like a generous true. And he goes, No no no.

10:29 That's not it. And I was like, Oh shit, what is he uh 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 I w he was in the first YC batch and he goes, one of the beautiful things about Silicon Valley is you learn the virtue of long term long term greedy people. And he goes, It's not a bad thing. It's everybody obviously wants their interest, but when it's long term greedy, you're gonna play a totally different game than short term greedy. That's exactly right. And I would tell you my

10:54 Nuance. That I do see in some others, which is why I gravitate towards them. Is And then if your law greed. Is about

11:03 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.

11:18 Put a million and make 40 million. More for My daughter has an issue in nine. 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.

11:32 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. But You seem like you are a really bad firer. 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.

11:51 And it was called Candor. And I spoke about my journey. And I was only ready, Sam, to write about it. You know, you can only talk about your alcoholism when you're like feeling like close to fixing it, right? Like and 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. Like and I didn't see it, right? All of us, currently the three of us.

12:18 And we're proud of ourselves in certain areas and know we can do but currently By far the biggest problem the three of us have. It's something we can't see. I used to think of it as my ultimate strength, Sam. And it had so many beautiful effects. It led to so much good, but it actually ended up leading to the worst of the worst, meaning

12:36 Yeah, I've been really managing people since I was eighteen years old. Right. But the liquor store for real. Like truly like This eighteen year old child is the boss. You know,'cause he's the boss's son in this book or store.

12:47 And all the way up to where I'm now. And so I used to think my greatest strength was eliminating fear. It's superhero syndrome, right? Like I can take care of everything. I got it.

12:58 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.

13:08 But that many in 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 a like really? I think you guys know me, I'm a little go lucky that way. I'm like Sam, you have the best fing weekend this weekend, right? And you're working for me for three years. Like, all right, Gary, like you do. And then like Monday, I'll be like, Sam, you talk to you in the office road. Hey, so Yeah, it's gonna be your last day. And by the way, I've been sitting on this for a year and a half. Back to your point, Sam. Right. And today's your last hey and you're like

13:37 Bro, like I like you never said anything. Like and then I would blame you. I'd be like, Sam, you're you're so delute like And then I would talk to Sean and be like, Sean, could you believe Sam like everyone in the company knows Sam sucked for the last 18 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 we're in a Facebook group, like

14:04 Not talking nicely about me and these were people I really had a lot of continue it ironically, like, you know, it's funny, that person also over time realizes what they did. So there was like a a lot of them I've 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 all 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 uh Have you guys heard of uh J uh obviously we have, but Jensen Hung, the uh NVIDIA guy, uh he has this great line where he's like

14:40 I'm not gonna fire you. I'm gonna squeeze you so hard that greatness comes out of you. And then interestingly, Dave Portnoy, the founder of um Barstool, he had another point where he goes, I never fire anyone. I refuse to fire anyone. But we are gonna make you great. Like he says 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 Patel on, and Neil was like I only hire people who have been there done that. I only hire people who have built this thing already that I want built. And if they can't do it, then I fire them within a week, which is probably honestly the more common attribute of like just hiring people who have been there done that and then if they suck right away, you know, you hear hire slow, fire fast.

15:14 I bleed into both those categories, by the way, and then have a third element which is I'm The cliche girl that wants to date the bad boy'cause I'm gonna fix him. Right. If I didn't have entrepreneurial DNA.

15:29 I would one hundred percent be a therapist, guidance counselor. Or a coach, right? Like And so I Allowed both in my investing. And in my operating.

15:40 Too much. In my twenties through mid forties. Too much. Of my non profit. therapy DNA into my day to day.

15:50 I've been able to And Лемі сайтис та аніон. Who's struggling with being too nice.

15:58 You know, or Cause 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 what you know, and And so For anyone who's struggling with this, like There's a better way.

16:12 Like, you know, can't let 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 and it showed up in the business results. I've been a dramatically better CEO.

16:32 the last three, four years where I've cleaned up my candor. I rebranded it into kind candor. It became the ethos of our company because I think candor a lot of times is used as an excuse to be a dick face and suppress people. And so we had to put that word kind in front of it. And it's uh 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 uh coaching and advice to entrepreneurs around the world.

16:56 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.

17:10 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 clawed code to pontificate and it's truly like I am a product of this era.

17:29 Like lose video are you are you turning the sound on uh lately when you know when you're scrolling on Instagram? Honestly, like I you know, I'm pissed right now because I want to my favorite thing is to get flowers. And the truth is it's so weird, Sam. Like my brother, for example, would answer this epic. He's got his X so dialed in, and he would sit here and talk about AI or live shop, but like he would give you like seven names that he'd be like so good. And I'm so shitty because the answer is

17:56 I've Seven active businesses. that are doing more than eight figures a year in revenue where I am Meaningless.

18:05 W wh which ones are those? Tell us about it. Break it down. Vayner Media. Meaner X. Which is four hundred million in revenue. I am the day to day CEO. And that that owns all the other six. No.

18:17 It own it owns none of the other six. Next. Vyner Sports. What's Vader Sports doing exactly? Oh, Vader Sports does sports representation. So we rep Kirk Cousins, Sauce Gardner, Aiden Hutchinson, Bo Bachette.

18:31 And and and IL stuff too now, or just pros? N I L at scale. We have probably three hundred college athletes. Okay, so that's doing tens of millions. That's doing tens of millions in revenue. I have CR group. Which is a restaurant group.

18:44 Which is if you remember famously I had that NFT restaurant. News alert everyone, it's crushing. It's called Fly Fish Club. Uh we also have K-pons at Eto and five restaurants and And I'm Actively involved texting with David Rodlitz all the time. So B C R group, tens of millions in revenue as a restaurant group.

19:02 I have V friends. V friends is probably the thing I'm most em like. AJ and David Rodelitz are one A. In the prior two businesses, I am one A. In V Friends.

19:13 B Frances is gonna 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 it that by the way, that is a dark horse chance to be really One of my greatest roses because all the ashes of the NFT era that I'm gonna get to the other side and be Marvel and Pokemon is gonna f with everyone so heavy in fifteen years. Wine library. People would be flabbergasted.

19:38 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. But I Work on it every single day.

19:49 One that's really under the radar radar, Vayner Watt. I have a very successful T V production company that's kind of brewing right now called Vaynerwatt. We have a bunch of shows that have quietly just sold. So you like literally on Hulu and ABC and Netflix, like you're gonna see Bayner Watt.

20:07 Or what? pop up and then finally, and I'm sure not lost on you guys. L The N I L and brand of Gary Vee, I have a full massive team on it. Speaking in books and content and and I L.

20:19 Do do you have ads or just or is it monetized via speaking? I did a deal with Stan Score. I I did a deal with Masterclass. I'm starting to play 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 N I L 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 Bartlett's, the Alex Cooper's, the the the the rise of the creator entrepreneur and the entrepreneur creator as the next Fortune five hundred companies, and my belief with AI blockchain evolving social de you know, decentralization of Hollywood and and Madison Avenue and Wall Street. That The biggest companies in the world are human based organizations where the human either has a partner that could operate or they're

21:07 Of me where they can be both. Hey everyone really quick, if you're enjoying this episode on CEO stuff, so delegating, having hard conversations with your team, hiring, then I've got something for you. So the 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 wanna 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 and

21:43 Totally awesome. You just named like six or seven companies that are doing eight figures that you're like, I'm either the one A or the one B. And I think that's awesome because I too wish I had ninety six hours a day. And so, you know, walk us through what's the what does the day look like, what's the time blocking look like for this, right? Like What's a day in the life of Gary Vee to do all this? You know, I wake up at six or seven, there's a work out session.

22:07 Every day ish. I'm pretty much an eight. to eight thirty to n eight to nine AM Star Point. Done between B

22:16 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 are fifteen minutes? And again, let's get to the point here, right? Let's get to the point here.

22:30 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 had this feeling that I was gonna be able to

22:45 have a lot of really good A and B players around me that would stay with me that could do bigger things, could do things on their own. But that the relationship And that they would believe in me and 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 then I could convert D's into B's and C's into Bs. I just have this feeling that

23:08 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 in I'm uncomfortably efficient with my time. And yes, I'm on a boat which has seven holes and I put my finger in the one that needs it most for every parent that knows you're only as happy as your most unhappy child. And so my ebbs and flows of like oh shit baner sports needs me, or shit baner like there's all that. But the real reason is because of the 50 people from Ryan Harwood or Kalen or Claude or JT or AJ and Greg Genskey or David Rodelitz and Connor Hamlet or Andy Kay and John and JT, John Troutman and May and Rips on B Friends, or Brandon Warnecke on Wine Library, or Eric Wattenberg, Bayner Watt.

23:51 on that. And I've got another one coming that I'll announce next year, standalone business. Uh, and it's somebody who's worked for me for eleven years who's gonna be my co founder. And I had the experience with Rezi. You know, like people forget that I'm the co-founder and inventor of Rezi, but I had Ben Leventhal be the one A, I was the one B, and that was a hefty nine figure exit. And I had Empathy Wines, two former interns of mine who worked for me for eleven years, and we started Empathy Wines and in 18 months sold it for a Almost nine figure hefty eight figure deal to consolation brands in eighteen months just like you know, everyone's like Gruins. I'm like, I did that, not to not to one point two billion, but It's because when I do things on a net new business, the person is my family member. It's family business.

24:34 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, uh I'm doing live shopping and live streaming, but I don't wanna do this all the time and I'm nervous that this all relies on me and I wanna get other content creators. You have listed six or seven businesses doing tens of millions in revenue and

25:04 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.

25:19 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

25:29 that crew right now. What do you think is happening? And then of course There's Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber where they need a business person to also be in round. But then there's also Like I mean you guys are like in pot it depend you know, everyone has different hopes and dreams and Sam, you've nailed it. Like to me, like

25:47 I love this shit, bro. You know, people go and buy a home in the Bahamas and that's and play golf and that 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,'cause client services suck shit. I don't go to Aspen. I go to two days.

26:06 Off sites for B friends'cause it fills my soul, and I do the comic stories of my characters. You know, or I go to a half day at wine library and talk to Brandon because he's my best friend since I was fourteen, and I need it for my soul. But then we also fix the f Business.

26:22 What uh what's going on in these fifteen minute meetings? Uh,'cause I suspect what you're doing in fifteen minutes is taking most people an hour. So maybe you have a format. I'm mad at you, bro. You took my shit. I was you asked that I was about to say the thing that everyone else is spending an hour on. Yeah. Well, And this is gonna be one of the highlights that I know from this meeting, th this podcast. Everyone's gonna

26:42 I love that I said meeting. This feels more like a business meeting than why you guys are so successful. Um Everyone's gonna 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 from me. And I just went there. I knew it subconsciously, then it became slick I'm just

27:06 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 What I just dropped on you guys literally nobody really knows. Which is wild because I'm Gary Vee and I'm talking to all the time. And I think I got there on the f 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. Like every company requires three or four family members. For it to really work the way it works for me, because you gotta have a backup and a backup and a backup. Cause there's so many variables that can go into these things. So

27:37 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've teenage kids, I'm a wife. It's just like

27:52 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.

28:07 Percent I'm being informed, seventy percent I'm making decisions. That's insane. That's hard. The contact switching, the that that's challenging. I've got a bunch of new film people because all my

28:20 People who sh look this feels incredible. Go on to these incredible things after they film me for a little while and get all these offers or start doing things. And so I constantly have a D Rock 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 I clearly D and A, I wonder if growing up in retail where you're just switching, like everything's just always on. I don't know. I actually think that sometimes when I say contact switching, we had a guy, our 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

28:57 Screwed him up. Like the the rest of the podcast was kinda shaky because he was like, Oh, I'm so sorry. I can't stop thinking about my daughter just texting me this. I'm so sad for her. I think one, it's it I've come to learn it's unique to do that. Two, now you're really talking about it. That has definitely been even that has definitely been something I'm that I got from my mother, which is

29:18 Being able to carry In the moment. adversity and negativity and still show up. Like I think a lot about that as a leader. Like I get a lot of bad news every day. One, I'm psycho and I'm in the HR of all my companies, and now we have so many goddamn employees. Every day someone's dad is s it's just like I wanna know if somebody in my company is going through tough stuff. And then there's just when you're in client services.

29:43 Um we went sixteen months without losing a client. At Baner X, we're ripping hot. Right. Uh and then recently in the last sixty days we've lost two. And the and the first one was not surprising, the second one was a little bit.

29:55 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 to that because I was pissed and like I wanted to to fix it, but I knew I had to show up for this thing and this thing and this thing. And then not to mention all the things that happened in my personal life similar to the college thing. There's always something. Just like being able to like eat shit and fire fight is like a really strong emotional framework that is hard. What about no notification fatigue? I I tease Sean all the time. Sean, what's the joke? What's the stereotype if I w if anyone wants to get a hold of you? Do you do you know what that stereotype is about you, Sean? Call Ben, I don't know. No, you d Sean will not reply. Getting in touch with Sean when you need to sometimes it's a pain in the butt. With me, I tend to reply, but it wears me out. I get so exhausted because I feel like

30:39 I want to like please these people. Shaw's worst part is I go to him 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 should even send this. Maybe I should just I'm in between you guys. I try to reply a lot. I use flights quite a bit to catch up. Um and then If they can't get me, they get to the admins and the admins have a good sense of my reality.

31:02 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. Just got

31:19 Yeah. Like I want to do this and I want to do what this person is. Say it again, Gary. Say it say it cute. I got tummy tickles. There's so much serendipity. To it. I'm I'm very comfortable. Dying on my sword.

31:36 Which is my intuition. I'm very comfortable. Well, have you guys all ever came close to bankruptcy or or not being able to make payroll? You know what's funny, but uh Make payroll Rezi was in trouble.

31:49 I had to put personal money in that I didn't really have at the time. But nothing I've ever operated as the one A. You know, got trained by a Soviet immigrant father Who didn't even literally raising capital, forget it. Debt. Forget it.

32:03 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

32:18 Always have money in the bank. For a 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. Yeah. All right, let's take a quick break and I got a question for you. When a buyer asks AI for a solution like yours, does your business come up? Most companies have no idea. And 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.

32:55 HubSpot AEO is built for. Check out HubSpot.com, the agentic 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 you get exposed to stuff that the average person doesn't. Where are you seeing a lot of heat right now? Oh, there's so many good areas. I mean like you know

33:22 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

33:39 Advanced AI Like really knowing where the stigma is today, but won't be in five years. Right? Like creating a entire agency of virtual people. Right. Knowing right now it's a little weird, but let's survive three to five years and we're gonna have

33:57 The CAA of virtual people. They're all gonna be the most famous virtual people and we Oh 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

34:12 to the consumer that realizes what live shopping's doing to e commerce is what e commerce did to real com like real life. And so what I mean by that is like You know, I think e com now is what, twenty five, thirty percent of the market. Like In six to ten years, live shopping will actually be.

34:30 Ten to fifteen percent of all commerce. And that is scary big. Did you invest in what not? I did not I obviously talk about well not all it's not in a possible.

34:40 You've been talking about live selling for years. Sean, you'll love this. Any time I've invested in something that I end up having to talk about a lot. I make a lot of content, I'm throughout that I'm an investor. So the way you know if I'm an investor in something is I'm saying it electronic on'cause I never so You know what? I'm sure everyone thinks I did, and by the way.

34:59 It. w it ran through my table. Like I don't I wasn't actively investing at the time, which is the answer, Sean, to why I didn't. And I know we crossed my desk, but I never took like a meaningful meeting with Grant, but I'm so happy for him. He's done a great job. I'm happy for the people that invest I think Sean, didn't they ask you to invest in the seed run and you forgot to reply to the email? No, no, no, no. Uh not a f finally one I didn't shoot myself in the foot. Somebody else shot me in the foot. I met with Grant, I was like, I love this. My last business got acquired by Twitch. I'm amazing. Have you d have I told you how amazing I am? You gotta let me invest the rounded like

35:32 Just close but a lot of times. They'll let you in if they like you. They'll they'll open up or they'll they'll they'll squeeze you in. He he was just like, Let me see what I can do. And I didn't hunt to chase it down like ten times more. And I just let it go and yeah, that was a that's a big miss. I have a great email in my inbox from Joe at beta. Airbnb and breakfast. Airbread. Yeah, I'm trying to remember was it.

35:53 Yeah, Airbnb Breakfast dot com. 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. Uh Pinterest. I had a guy who was

36:07 The CSO, the cheap strategy offer at Campbell Soup. Who was like sixty years old said Gary, you gotta look at this startup from Pennsylvania. That's how he said it. My friend's cousin knows the guy. I'm like, okay. That's like I'm that's Yeah, it's like I got worse fit. That's like getting a script for Hollywood in Chicago. You know, I didn't even like contemplate it. Yeah, so that was close and then but I got in later through Scott Belski

36:33 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 dollar valuation. Both was like twenty five thousand dollar checks when he had like seventy five he told me he had like he's like I ha he's like I had seventy five grand in personal savings and I put twenty five in each of those companies. Yeah which looks 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.

37:00 Yeah, I mean I'm I mean Matt you know, one of the reasons I'm starting my next thing is a lot of CPG's magic spoon, a lot of good brands came to Bahner wanting us to be the people, but we didn't take on those kind of clients. Some things I invested in, some I didn't. I wanna be better at that. Uh my biggest win that I don't deserve.

37:19 It's gonna be liquid death. Mike worked at Bain Remedia 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.

37:34 I'm a cliche businessman that thinks creatives aren't business people, right? So I was like, you know, and 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. Like that that is like a silly thing on paper. 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 an a stunning variable, especially if the product's a commodity and water is a commodity, right? Like water and plastic versus water and can doesn't really change the variable. In fact, the can is The advantage. So I understood that part.

38:16 It was more interesting why I invest. It goes back to this nice guy theme a little bit. I just wanted to invest because I want to support my employees on their own ventures. So I literally did it. For that reason only and you know, that's gonna be a Modes, first check in. Today's podcast is brought to you by my friends at Mercury. Uh they make the world's best banking product. I think you know this already. I use Mercury for all of my businesses. So 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 banking account. So I have my personal account there. I moved off of Wells Fargo and Chase.

38:48 I'm just all in on Mercury. Why uh 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, very easy to spin up virtual cards. Uh one click and I get savings yield. It just has all the stuff that I need in one place. So

39:04 If you're looking for the best banking product on the market, it's definitely Mercury. I will fist fight anybody who disagrees with me on that. Go to Mercury.com/slash personal and learn more. Mercury is a FinTech, not an FDIC insured bank. Banking services are provided through Choice Financial Group and column NA, 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 like content and business world. Like I've noticed that as we've gotten bigger, I try to be very careful about who I associate with.

39:34 Yeah. Being a nice guy, do you struggle to like say, I don't want to be around this person, like they have a background of doing X, Y, and Z, or they don't they don't or they're they're they have political beliefs that I don't buy into and I don't wanna be associated with political I' I'll be on and you guys notice I never talk politics. Polit political beliefs won't throw me off because I'm Very empathetic that people can see the world of I mean hate. Or like ridiculousness on both the left and r extreme leftism and rightism as we know it today, sure. But like political beliefs, no. But

40:03 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. I I I You know, you're smart, and so I know that question is grounded in

40:24 You know that I've Avoided a lot of stuff. An association and that's the reason. Yeah, of course you never I mean, there's people the amount of people that will take a cell forget about people we know. There are people that are tier 19. People that are trying to do this.

40:39 Yeah, like four followers and they sell a four thousand dollar course and they're Criminals, right? They'll take a selfie with me at the airport. And then

40:48 Make a post and say that like we had a meeting at the airport To strategize. They're mastermind. Well, they did when they asked you a question. I agree. It's really you do have to be conscious of that. And you do need to worry about your N I L 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,'cause I'm like a huge true crime fan. And so like seeing the Epstein files like the J Mail, you know, you can like go through his email. I'm like, uh I always want to be so careful about who I'm speaking with. It it kinda freaked me out.

41:20 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 talk them everything that goes to my brain. Well you were just saying that thing on the Epstein thing,'cause I think about that too. I'm like, who's emailed me through the years and what But the thing I can rely on, Sam, is I am not cliche human. Meaning

41:40 I don't say like Things that are not nice. Like I definitely not in writing. You know, like you know, and so like I don't worry about that, luckily, and it all goes to credit how I was raised, like I really believe being the bigger person, being a nice person. You know what's really interesting? I actually I wanna ask you guys a question. This blows me away.

42:00 We are fortunate. We've worked hard. We had talent. We're at where we're at. Um What that allows us is to s spend some time In private and public settings with other people that have won.

42:10 The thing that completely rocked me. And when it was happening to me in my contemporaries, my era. What How many winners And I mean winners.

42:20 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?

42:29 Out of envy. Or I don't even know what. And I'm like, this energy Like I'm like what I had to say this to a couple of buddies not too long ago. I'm like you guys are a bunch of 14 year old bitches. Like, what are you talking about? You should be happy for XYZ that they're crushing it. Yeah, he's not the

42:47 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 focus 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.

43:09 Well Sean, what percentage of incredibly successful people do you know who you think are are good, wonderful people with good attitudes? Uh I think they're good wonderful people with good attitudes, but uh they're definitely imbalanced in some core way. Right. They're not well rounded. chill ass you know, people, right? Like I think the ex you're you're unlikely to be extreme winner.

43:29 without some version of an extreme personality. Sure. I think that's fair. Hunter S. Thompson said that he said there's there's no reasonable people on the top of Mount Everest. Yeah. Gary Gary, I I had a a person kind of point this out to me about about why this happened. So I don't know if you've ever read like the Renee Girard, like

43:47 Mimetic. theory. It's like Peter Thiel's really big on this. So 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

43:57 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 and DNA. I want it.

44:09 For my process, not because others want it. And it makes me feel simple, but it's very clear to me that most are the other way. Yeah. So so I think most people have this sort of mimetic drive, right? And this is why you see Trends and fad on because I wanna go buy Nitos right now'cause all the other kids are buying Nitos. And I wanna s say this because other people say this. I wanna wear Jordans because they wear Jordans. Right. So it's not uh so that's like a normal thing and there's a Another term in that philosophy that's called a mimetic rival.

44:36 So I was on a uh I was on this plane ride and I had this embarrassing moment where I was admitting to somebody, I was like, you know what, like I feel stupid even saying this. But God, it kinda drove me nuts the way this guy was saying that 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 that blah blah blah, and he goes. He goes, You know what?

44:57 Uh He goes, That person's your memetic rival. I go, What's a memetic rival? I don't know if you saw when uh Bezos was launching like his rocket and Elon's launching his rocket, and then they had this really passive aggressive thing. I see it's in Elon's biography. It's very funny. Congratulations to b uh Jeff on the first suborbital launch. And then he's like and then Elon landed it and he's like

45:19 Congratulations on the first successful landing from only a You know, two megaton, whatever it's like, they added these little qualifiers. They started blocking each other,'cause for each other, they're mimetic rivals, right? Like and it's just a very strange thing. You think these are the most secure people on earth, but we all have a core part of us that has that. It's have you learned to tame it and it's funny, I literally believe the reverse. I genuinely believe that the far majority of people. Get to the top from extreme insecurity. Hey, let me ask you one more question and you could and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, if it's too private, but

45:52 With the six or seven businesses that you've named They're badass. And like I'm looking at the people you hired or I guess they're you they're they are your co founders. They're Fricking awesome. And I was looking at some other 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 you 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. And Vayner Wats, Steve Ross, the owner of the Dolphins, who's in Vayner Media with me as well. He funded that. He wanted to be a part of that. А на рест

46:24 Um I Funded. That's awesome. Like I was looking at the I didn't know but that you had a restaurant. Um and I was looking at that and it looked like a membership club and I looked at the interiors

46:34 And I was like, No, it it was a it was a meaningful build out. Um like No, it's it's been really cool. Like I um I've been a really fun part of my career. I'm actually I actually just use this platform.

46:46 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, that I am proud of what I'm doing and I You know. No one really knows, which is wild. And I'm proud of that too, right? That goes to the humility, but now I'm maybe ready for being like, Hey guys, by the way, I'm not a motivational speaker. Right. I might actually be a weirdly good operator at scale. Well

47:09 Sean, Google Fly Fish Club Manhattan, or just Fly Fish Club. And please come when you guys are in New York. You'll be blown away. I live here now, Gary. I live on the upper west side. So Like ASAP, email me after this. Like ASAP, ASAP. I want you to see it. It's it's a three story restaurant with a private pose room. Like it's real. But more importantly, because you know this, it could also be going out of business tomorrow. Meaning It's a like the business is extremely viable. But the in fact, Sam, now that you're here, Upper West Side, if you just go over to GW, which I know is counterintuitive, The restaurant we opened in Bergen County, New Jersey called Capon's Chop House.

47:44 We now know we're about to open another one in Westchester. We're about to open Fifty of those. in high network neighborhoods of the biggest cities in the world, we got the model. We got it. And and don't forget, this is the brilliance of what I think when when it's all written, the Bayner X marketing machine impacts all these businesses, right? What's the model? It it says that it's a membership The model is open up

48:06 The new version of Bruce 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.

48:21 Are gonna sell the f Shit out of these places. It's not a new invented model. It's a member. You have to be a member. C Bon. This is just A Ruth.

48:31 Res. Steakhouse. Two point oh but we have a very strong Well we do to Eugene's credit, to Grotman's credit, to Noah's credit. Those places have cool.

48:43 Right, there's that. Night life element. We're going. Twenty percent less on that and twenty percent more on food. We think the secret to retention L L T B

48:53 It's just Execute. A food program that is so undeniable. And a little bit of that sizzle. But your stake's gotta be right, right, right.

49:02 Like our strategy is killer chicken parm. Yes, actually. That's kind of what the people want. You've gotten into this business genius. He decided to start uh an agency and a uh a restaurant. The two best businesses on earth. 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. I'm gonna turn V Friends into Pokemon and it's gonna be one of the most valuable intellectual properties in the world in twenty years.

49:35 which in an AI world will have an extraordinary amount of value and will be the best kind of business someone can build. Oh, we appreciate you, man. You're the shit. Thank you, guys. Yeah. They will. Wish you well. That's it, that's the pod. I feel like I can rule the world and no way

49:49 Be what I want to I put my all in it like my day song on the road, less 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 CRO of HubSpot, and he's a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School. The guy's smart, and he sits down every week with Different sales leaders from cool companies like Clavio and Vanta and OpenAI. And he's asking about their strategies, their tactics, and how they're growing their companies as you know, head of sales or chief revenue officer. If you're looking to scale a company up, if you're a CRO or a head of sales, just looking to level up in your career. I think a podcast like this could be great for you. Listen to the science of scaling wherever you get your podcast.

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