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

- Hey. (audience laughter) - Hello. - First of all, I'm always flying in and out of these things, so I don't get to see a ton of performances, but I do see a ton of stuff here and there. I just want to applaud the last one one more time, because I thought it was phenomenal. (applause) I was sitting there and listening, I'm always trying to maximize the work, so sitting there working, and all the sessions were really good, in fact I got to participate in a lot of them today, which made it fun. , but that was really good, I really felt like I felt it.

And I thought, this is really good, I was listening, I thought, I believe all that shit, I believe every word you just spit out. But then you got to the Michael Jordan part. (audience laughter) And I was like, screw Jason. (audience laughter) Because I'm a die-hard Knicks fan and I hate Michael Jordan. (audience laughter) Period. Oh man, that sucked. And I'm a Jets fan, I have Tom Brady, I'm fucking miserable with sports. Anyway. Look. I really want to take advantage of this format. This is a pretty small group, and we're very close here, and that's how I love it.

So to be very honest, I'll spit a little here, but I'd love to do a little Q&A. I'm not sure how set up they are for that, but I don't even

need

the microphone, so I'll repeat the questions. So I think the beauty of technology is that a lot of my current thoughts are on YouTube and Facebook right now, especially if any of you have consumed any of them, I don't

need

to repeat the topics. I think they are basic. I think, on some level, everyone has mentioned it. You know, I think what interests me most is the idea of ​​taking it, right?

For me the most interesting thing is the Internet. I think we greatly underestimate the Internet. You know, the Internet itself is ultimately what gives us the opportunity to sort out what I think is really in our hearts and what we're passionate about. I associate so many things with so many people, because you know, my story is that I was born in Belarus, I came to the US when I was three years old, I

live

d in a studio the size of the set I'm on now. seven family members. And so, it doesn't matter what you look like, as we all know, what's important is how you

live

, where you come from.

And to be very blunt, I'll be very, just, it's interesting, I see this all the time and I understand that the system doesn't put everyone in the best position to be successful, but I'm a product. where I believe that all my struggles have been my greatest advantage. And really, I didn't grow up in an educational system or VC system that rewarded me for being a white man, I grew up on a very interesting path, I was a fucking terrible student, I was a D and F student, so like most immigrants, I didn't use education as a way out, I was just a kid who sold shit.

Well, like I just sold flowers and sold lemonade. Now I'm Jewish and I sang carols like it was my last song. (audience laughter) What I did, and really, what I would love to leave you here, like I know the real answer because I've seen it in so many people's eyes, is self-awareness. My biggest fear in this room is that you are trying to be someone because you want to be that person, instead of discovering

your

self and putting

your

self in a position to be that person. I think what you had when I saw what you were talking about, like that kid was the kid all along.

He was self-aware, he discovered himself. He felt comfortable in that nerdy environment, I felt comfortable in high school working every minute, every second and missing all the parties. And I just haven't heard a voice in my head other than my own in a long, long time. And I think what's most interesting to me right now is that, if you really pay attention to what's happening, the Internet has done something absolutely incredible: there is no one with defects that can come between you and the end consumer that stops you. . in addition to the narrative in your own head.

That's a big problem. You know, obviously, a lot of people growing up in the music industry, it's very different now. Just do it, like producing a song now with technology and putting it on SoundCloud, production and distribution. That's some shit you couldn't even have imagined. And then I think, I'll be very honest, I think we're living in the best time to be human ever, I do. We have problems everywhere, we have genocide in the world, we have nothing but unlimited problems. But I put things in perspective, as if I didn't know. We had many problems, but the Black Death was worse.

Good? We had many problems, but World War II was worse. As you know, opportunities exist simply because of the Internet, not because we have evolved, I don't attribute that to us. We still have a long way to go, but the fact that we have so many opportunities. And for me it is basic. Either you are thinking and looking back, or you are optimistic and looking forward. The problem is that you grow up in an environment, you grow up with parents that

make

you defensive or offensive. And that's really the lottery. The lottery really is who your mom is, right?

The lottery is who is your best friend. That's the lottery I think about a lot. And this is how I look at it, I have an unlimited number of white male friends who have tons of fucking

money

in the bank that they lost, who suck, who are depressed because they won the wrong lottery because their mother is broken. and because his father was devastated. And so I am the byproduct, against all the odds, of parents who dominated. Like, my mom is all the time. She always is. And so even when I was getting Ds and Fs and all the other immigrant families were making fun of her because her child wasn't going to survive because you had to get A's and B's because that's all we knew in the '80s and '90s. , she knew who I was and let me hone my skills.

She would get Ds and Fs, I would get grounded, but I was still allowed to go do my baseball card shows because she was developing my skills, developing my skills. And they taught me how to work. They taught me how to work. I didn't see my dad until I was 15, and he made me work in his liquor store even though we slept in the same house every night, because he was gone before I woke up and came after. And now we live in this world where the crux of the matter is his Instagram account, his YouTube account, his SoundCloud account, the Internet.

In fact, let me tell you something that fascinates me. Since we think a lot about

money

and opportunities, let me tell you about an opportunity that I can't get out of my head. I mean, there's a website called Craigslist. There is a section called Free where people list things they want to get rid of. You go there and take it. And then you list it on Facebook Marketplace and sell it. And when I think about this, by the way, I've been dreaming about this for the last 72 hours. I'm literally doing this selfishly, so (mumbles) capture this because this video is going to be posted.

You know, it's crazy to me that the only thing that stops someone from winning is education and work ethic, right? I understand that. But education comes in many different forms. I was on The Breakfast Club the first time and Envy thought he was a motivational speaker, like a rah rah shit, like the secret shit. So he called me a little bit and I was like fuck. You know, it was like. (audience laughter) He says, you know, you're lying on the radio, and he said, "Give us something practical, 'fuck this shitty mentality,' right, I say okay, mentality is the game." , but Fuck it, I'll give it to you.

And I said, "Go to the dollar store and go to Marshalls, "get your phone, scan the shit, look it up on Ebay, "and if it's two dollars at Marshalls" and it sells. for nine bucks on Ebay, "buy it and sell it." And that was, it was like this moment in a six-minute radio ad and then it caught on a little bit, and then I read all the comments and. Then I started getting emails like I

make

$500 a week, but now I'm making 200 because I go to a dollar store and sell them on Ebay And then this whole thing unfolded.

And then I called it the 2017 flip challenge. And we have 10,000 emails from people who literally went to thrift stores and dollar stores and made 20, 30, 40,000 long tail, long tail of all of this, right. We're in this, especially in this incubator, like 99% of startups are failing in this generation because we're living in the biggest era of fake entrepreneurship. The number of false businessmen in this building right now is extraordinary. (audience laughter) It's true, it's true. And by the way, please, I know many of you don't know me, I'm not sitting on a high horse like I'm a good entrepreneur and you're not.

It's obvious in black and white because it's a bubble because it got cool, right, it got cool. And it doesn't cost anything, and there's so much money in the system, there are so many incubators willing to give you money. All my friends over the last 10 to 15 years are building all these businesses where it's really not that hard to lose money every month, right? I think in your panel, you guys said, as entrepreneurs, you know, losing money and then making money or building money, I couldn't understand everything because I was distracted. The problem is that it takes a lot of talent to build something that will ultimately make money.

And we spend 99% of our time talking about fucking Slack, Uber, Snapchat, and fucking Instagram. We have like 17 companies to talk about and there are 17 damn companies that are closing every hour, every minute, and in the meantime, more money is being pumped into the system. And it's very obvious right now where this is all going, and it's not very aware because we lack self-awareness. What we are doing is simply riding the waves of the current conversation. There are so many people who will be founders of companies who would have done incredibly well being number 17 in this startup or number 94 in that company or number 167 in that company, but they want to be number one in the Uber of pancakes, are they?

TRUE? . And so, I'm

watch

ing this and I'm fascinated. In the meantime, in the meantime, there is a lot of practicality. Let me tell you what breaks my heart. I read a lot of comments from my audience. I've received two examples in the last three weeks of kids who were making money from retail arbitrage, right? I think I already mentioned Craigslist on Facebook Marketplace. I think there's no question, if you told me hey, this is a class of 16-year-old kids and they have to make money in the

next

24

months

or bad things happen, all I do is go buy shit, sell it and run.

Arbitration on the Internet. We'll spend the first three

months

teaching you all about Craigslist, Ebay, Facebook Marketplace, and Letgo, and then we'll talk about China, how to buy shit there, and arbitrage. I would spend an enormous amount of time, because the practicality right now and the inefficiency of the Internet, of buying and selling things, is extraordinary. In the last three weeks, I've had these kids who, you know, have been following my content and they're like, Gary, I want to get your advice. And basically, both narratives went the exact same way, which is to say, hey, I hear you, I got good, I started buying stuff, then I had great success, a bunch of people made a lot of money from solar eclipse glasses.

You could literally buy those things for about 16 cents in China on Baidu and then sell them for about four dollars each on Amazon. The people made the bank. I know a kid who won $317,000. At a starting point of $3,000, correct. It's very real to me, instead I'm going to create a crazy app that will change the world, right? Because it's damn practical. And they've both made real money, one kid made like 16,000 this year with a base of about $100, right? They are like real money. And they both took everything and bought cryptocurrency. - Wow! - Yes. (audience laughter) Yes.

By the way, I believe in blockchain as a technology that comes out of my ass. The part of the story you don't know is that they bought at 17,000. - Oooh. And they bought at 17,000 because they read 400 articles that said it was going to be 34,000. And by the way, Bitcoin could be 400,000, I'm not sure. I don't know. This is what disappoints me: short-term thinking. When he courts me, I'm not mad at him, I tell him to listen, maybe, for the long haul. I don't know anyone's monetary situation. Let me give you something that will really work for you.

If you don't have to take it off Wall Street, put your money into Facebook and Amazon, and I promise you that unless America melts in the

next

7 to 10 years, you will do fine. There are certain things that are so obvious in black and white, right? And then everyone else is looking for a lottery ticket. I used an analogy on the podcast I just did with some good guys, and I realized, maybe because I was in Miami and I stayed at the fucking Hard Rock Casino hotel, which was fucking disgusting. (audience laughter) But a lot of people treated their businesses like a casino.

Yes, you could have one night where you took 5000 from the casino, but why don't you continue every night and tell me how it works? They don't build Las Vegas on us winning. And now everyone is treating their businesses that way. Everyone jumps from one trend to another, they have no basis for what they are really doing, they just make headlines and will be exposed. Instead of taking a step backmeaningful and think a lot about A, about how exciting it is to eat shit. You know, what works for me and what I really wanted for everyone else is that I love the journey, I love the game, I love the fight.

Do you know why I keep doing new things? Because I like people to clown me around. Do you know why I put out a sneaker, my own sneaker, especially growing up in that era? Because I knew people were going to shit on me for thinking I had too big an ego and audacity, and I knew people didn't think it was going to work. And that's why I did it, because I wanted that fight. And then the high outsells the future and weekend sneakers combined, that high is the best and the low, that's my L. When you love the game you're in, you win either way.

Either you win and you can talk shit, or you lose and your guys can talk shit and you laugh with them. The biggest problem at the moment is insecurity. Everyone's actions are to get shit to shut down their insecurity. You need a new pair of fucking Supremes because you want to tell people who you are through your Supremes, but you're just disguising your weakness. That's why I'm absolutely obsessed with people starting to talk about self-awareness and patience, because it will work. Now, it may take 15 years, it may take seven, it may take nine, but if you really take tried and true things like that during a time when there's so much opportunity, it's not sexy to go around and say that you buy weird things like candles in China and sell them on Amazon and make $7,000 a month, but it works.

And I literally sat in rooms and had these one-on-one discussions, and the kids picked the sexiest thing because we're playing a big optics game. We're playing a big fucking game of optics. And VC is very interesting for me, I did very well, here is my story. I made a lot of money selling baseball cards when I was a kid. My dad worked hard and saved every dollar, immigrants have discovered that. It's called making money, not buying nonsense, saving it for 13 years, buying an asset and having the American dream. Good? Unlike what's happening, by the way, new prediction because I've been doing some homework, college debt is going to ruin the entire country.

I had no idea, I don't know, you know, I knew college debt was screwed. I didn't know the next thing I've been doing homework for the last three days. This story is real and it is spreading across America right now. You have $237,000 in college debt with interest that is fucking crazy. You earn $84,000 a year and the banks lend you half a million to buy an apartment. (audience laughter) So get ready, 2009 is coming again. I don't know how long Trump can sustain it artificially, but shit is going to hit and it's going to hit hard. And this is what is going to happen.

Everyone will blame the universities, because you know, Omar, who needed a new BMW, even though he was $313,000 in debt, won't blame himself for the BMW, he'll blame Babson. And then the universities' brand is about to collapse. Just like the banks screwed up. Including all these opportunities that we know are good alternatives. By the way, in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, vocational skills were all the rage. Then came the university propaganda. Which is cool because it worked for a minute. It's just that shit changes. And so we're living in a really, really, really interesting time, because there's so much carnage in the system ready to come, at the same time, it's never been better for all of us, because the scale of anything you want to do on the Internet is really real.

It's never been more practical to make $100,000 a year talking about fucking the Smurfs. (audience laughter) It's the truth. For example, if you look at the niches, if you really run a podcast, a YouTube channel, and an Instagram account and really understand how to create stories like my man just did, day after day on a consistent basis, especially if you know what the Fuck what you're talking about and be patient, you'll be surprised how much money there will be for you on the other side of that rainbow. And the only way to do that while nothing good is happening is to talk about the shit you love the most.

He could make a living talking about the 1987 Pistons. That's crazy. By the way, the 87 Pistons really screwed up Jordan, that's why I had to visit my man Jason. (audience laughter) I know, man. I don't have any, damn it. That's why I want to buy the Jets, I think screw it, no one else will do it for me, I'll buy the Jets and win my own Superbowl. Anyway. (audience laughter) Then I built my dad's business for him, I left it at 34, I had no capital in the business, I didn't save much money because we invested all the money in the business, I grew my dad's business . business from $3 to $60 million.

I paid my parents for giving me. And then I did something really smart: I was building a liquor store that my father owned and I turned it into a wine trading business. And it was using modern technologies. And along the way, I realized that social media was the second coming of what I saw with Google, blogging and email, and then I understood pattern recognition, so I was an early investor in Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr and obviously, as you can imagine, it changed the course of my career. But what's really fascinating to me is that the opportunities are so much greater than ever before because now it's scale.

It's just that all we do is play the lottery. I'm a bad player. For example, I never taught myself how to play poker. I don't like gambling very much. So when I gamble, I go to a fucking casino, at the end of the night I'm going to own the casino. I'm playing the highest risk shit. It's like roulette, a number, put like $500 on it. None of this is basic, it's like I'm trying to create memories, right? That's why I lose all my fucking money. (audience laughter) That's fine for casinos, it's not fine for life, and that's what people are doing.

People talk about creating fucking businesses and apps and stuff like that, and they don't look at the math. 99% of these companies will disappear and the economy has been good for nine years. There is money in the system. None of the pre-series B companies are making money. What do you think happens when they can't advance to their next round? Do you know how many companies are rounding down right now? All of them. (audience laughter) We're not going to have that conversation. Meanwhile, the propaganda of that or cryptocurrencies or other things made people excited, respected and interested, I'm sure there will be people who win.

Meanwhile, there's all this practical money. And listen, because I grew up pretty ridiculously, you know, D and F student in rural New Jersey, like hunter kids who wanted to shoot you with their, you know, shotgun. Then I went to Mount Ida College in Newton, Mass, 94% minority, like kids who wanted to shoot you with different types of guns. And literally my entire group that I grew up with from first grade to college, 98% of my friends make less than $100,000 a year. Then I got into the tech world and these cities, and all my next-gen friends, you know, 60% of them are 8, 9, and 10 figures.

And I look, and I look every day, and I live in this fucking strange world. And money is not the variable of happiness. I've got kids on two fucking softball teams, working in factories, making $47,000 a year and fucking happy. I have a friend who has 50 dollars, 150 million in the bank, fucking miserable, depressed, three times a day to the doctor and he's like, "I'm, so I look at this and I'm like, okay." . Let's take a step back. The Internet is in its maturity, we are in scale. Real dollars can be earned by building a hands-on business. And we're introducing people to a casino environment where it's like winning a lottery ticket.

And then it's okay, just right. If you're creating a lottery ticket, that's how you win $50 million companies, $100 million companies, and I respect that. My advice here on the practical side is very much a one, two or three million dollar a year business. But then I look and think, man, how many people are there right now who would love to make $212,000 a year and they love it. And I'm struggling with that, trying to figure out how to get this noise into the system because it's very real. It's so real, there are so many opportunities, and if I could say something before we get into Q&A, I would really love to make practicality and patience sexy.

I really would. Because that really changes your life. That's really good. For example, if you're sitting here and you really need finances, I'm very serious about it. You go to Craigslist, it's free. You drive your car, you

watch

television. You put it on Facebook, you sell it for $60 and you get $60. It's just that there's a lot of that. And the people who listen to me and are angry and have dirt under their nails and are ghettos like me who love it, love it. Now they earn like 3, 4, 5 or 6,000 dollars a month. Shit adds up. Shit adds up.

And so please think about all the interesting things that are out there, learn, by the way, I know that's what they shove down your throat 99.9% of the time, so I'm not even going to talk about it . Let me tell you about the 0.01% that is not. Internet is amazing. Truly unbelievable, as if we couldn't, we take it for granted, all of us, including the smart ones, who have been a part of this. We will look back when, I, we are all grossly underestimating what is really happening. The Internet is the intermediary of everything. It will suffocate everything, everything.

Bookstores and taxi companies are the first. All. What do you think will happen to the main media? Everything is suffocating. Asphyxiated, retail, asphyxiated. Personal relationships, suffocating, real estate, suffocating, everything is suffocating. Which means you have the same access as anyone else. Just do it, it's true. And the people in the middle who used to be there simply for the establishment will have to adapt and provide value or they will be finished. And record companies, book publishers and real estate agents don't do much once they're established, that's the truth. They create distribution, but that has become a commodity.

And so you need to understand this truth, because when I look around, people are going to live 40, 50, 60 years, and I wonder what are you doing, like we have that much time. It scares me when people are 40 years old and think it's a young person's game. You're going to live here for another 70 years, technology is improving, you'll be older than you think. You have so much time and everyone is in such a hurry. They are in a hurry because they want to prove something to someone. Or their parents or contemporaries. And I'd really like to make it attractive to be like the person who said, listen, I think being a turtle is cool because you can win the fucking race.

Know. Maybe your mom or dad thinks you're a loser right now, but it would be much better if you won that debate instead of rushing to say something stupid to make them think you're not a loser faster. And that's all I see over and over and over again. And I think this conversation needs to be included in the system because look, there's a big difference between making money and raising it. And we've become overly romanticized about raising capital. Which has a need and I believe in it, and I'm a VC myself, but everyone has failed to fulfill it.

Now, let me promise you something: knowing how to make money is always a good skill, always. And I think it's time we start having a broader conversation about how to teach that to people, but everyone is too sophisticated. You are too elegant. (audience laughter) It's true. The people are elegant. Everyone likes to put founder on their Instagram profile as if it means something. That if I have a basketball player on my fucking Instagram account, it doesn't mean he plays in the NBA, son of a bitch. (audience laughter) And that's the problem right now. We have idealized something, it is very easy to say, you cannot say that you are a professional singer because everyone would criticize you, we can see that.

You can't say you're a professional athlete. But you just put that word entrepreneur and co-founder and you are, but you're not. You are renting that state. There's a big fucking difference between being an entrepreneur and being a successful entrepreneur. And unfortunately, we've confused the lines and it's putting people into really bad habits during an easy time. If you're under 31 in this room, you've never been punched in the mouth professionally. Which to me means you're so fucking soft. It's not your fault, maybe you can withstand that blow, but you didn't live through 2000, 2001 and 2008, definitely not 94. I mean, you didn't get punched in the fucking mouth.

And so if you've been doing something for two years, three years and you're not winning and it's that easy, you better reconsider now. Yesterday. It means maybe you're number three and you should look for one. It means that maybe you are dreaming and playing the lottery and you need to be practical. Because this has been the easiest time to make money in the last 100 years. And if you haven't figured it out, you might be shit. I'm serious, it's true. Like it's cold, butHonestly, I'd rather give it to you cold, give you at least the idea of ​​thinking about it because it's so cold, instead of pleasing you, and then when you crash and you're in a lot of pain, all those people who were saying rah rah, you can do it, they're not for here.

So please be practical. Learn how to make money if you are a business person. And that's where I am. I'd love to do some Q&A, thanks for having me. (applause) Respect. -Then everyone who creates a channel can set their own price for it. People pay them directly. We split the income with them 50/50 and you can use cryptocurrencies. - Well. - I want to know, you arrived early on YouTube. - Yes. - You want to get to Reflections early. - Probably not, but let's talk about it. So the first thing that's interesting is what is the revenue sharing? - It's a 50/50 split, so Apple gets 30 cents on every dollar, we split the rest with the content creator. - So the 70 that remain, you mean? - Right, 35 cents for the creator, 35 cents for us. - So what are you doing to get my 35 cents? - So right now we're incentivizing influencers to sign up for the app and be a part of it, and then we'll launch it on South by Southwest. - Okay, so you think that you have seven or eight people who have a little bit of an audience and then, because they are in it, they will be able to get other people on board. - Yes, we had 100 users from Los Angeles.

Some major influencers and some creators that I can't mention right now, but they are influencers. - You know, usually the reason, and I've seen a lot of apps like this, usually the reason this app scares me is because people underestimate, people love to say "I", you have to come to my thing, and I've watched this show over and over again, because you're on YouTube or Facebook or Instagram and you don't get paid shit. You have to attack mine and that's how we're going to do it, which is the right argument, right? The problem is that those platforms have fucking eyes.

Everybody matters when Instagram gives you the fucking algorithm and Facebook gives you the awareness, but when you go to a new platform and now you're asking your audience for money and there's actually no one there, that model has been a really difficult model. to happen. There is a very important reason why there is still no platform for content that works that way in a world where influencers have been real for 13 years. Don't let this current Instagram status fool you. Long before Instagram, there have been influencers on YouTube for 12 years, there have been influencers for a long time in many places.

When you ask people to pay for content, that shit better be real, because there is unlimited content and secondly, everyone thinks they can move it, but every single one of these highlights from the last five years digitally. They've created some version of their own app, they've received shares in some new startup that has the exact same business model as you, and none of them have shown up because when you try to steer people away from a free platform where there are a lot of other people to a place where you have to play for your thing, people are exposed for not meaning much.

So I think the most important thing you need to do is make the other move that a lot of people make, which is to bring in seven or eight people to take a look and have an audience, well, maybe. That momentum can be maintained. The problem is, when people start going to a paid venue, they start trying to get their audience to come and pay them here, which starts to cause them to lose their audience at the free venue. And that attention was the currency they had in the first place, so they started losing on both sides.

There is a very systematic reason why this model has not worked consistently over the last seven years, including for companies that have had between $20 and $30 million in funding. So I would just say, please do me a favor and really do your homework on the 10 or 15 that have died in the last four or five years so you don't make the same mistakes, because I don't think you might not find out, I just know it's a lot harder than people think. Because the theory that Facebook and YouTube are screwing you is ridiculous, they are the people who are screwing you in the first place.

You're not paying YouTube, Facebook and Instagram for those hundreds of millions of potential views, so you need to think about that. - Thank you. - You got it, brother. Hey man. - What's happening? A quick question. - What is your name? - Eugene. So I'm a serial entrepreneur, and then I got into corporate America, made at most a six-figure income, and then I just left it to go back to tech because I basically couldn't breathe. Then I thought of an advertising site company. Basically what we do is small business marketing. We take your customers and us, hundreds of customers who walk through the door every day, and turn them into a marketing resource.

So we have them promote discounts and free stuff on social media, or you know, generate reviews on Yelp and stuff like that. That's how it's built, our entire platform is built on the Facebook Messenger application. - I love it. - And that's why a lot of the conversation is altered by AI, all of that. - Understood. - So I just wanted to know your point of view on that, that process. - I really like what I hear. I like the small business part, I like the practicality of it, like the long tail in that world hasn't been exposed, Facebook still thinks about it every day.

You know, it's where Google makes money, the long tail is extremely profitable. And many people don't focus on it. The one thing I would say to them that made me think that if I were an investor or a partner, I would say "hey." Actions incentivized to help a company usually ultimately fail. So consider the psychology of what happens when an action is incentivized: the end consumer eventually understands that it is defective. What Yelp, you know, breaks anonymous for the same reason. In the end, the data, the content, is not valuable. The fact that everyone just found out that you have a business that takes a customer who comes to a local business and gets a better deal to write a review on Yelp has already made them not like Yelp as much anymore.

Yelp was surfing until people started making friends with or dating someone who worked for a PR agency that wrote fake Yelp reviews. When you play with the truth, you become vulnerable. So I would be very thoughtful about what you're incentivizing so that it doesn't become the vulnerability of what you're building. If you stay away from that vulnerability, everything else is fine. AI Messenger hasn't even started, it's going to be a huge space. SME spending on social media hasn't even started, it's going to be a huge space. Just think about that last part. - Fine, thanks. - You got it.

How are you? - Good how are you? - Well, what's your name? - Well, my name is Victoria Ekwenuke. I am the global brand manager at Ebay. - Awesome. - Yes, and I found it very interesting that, in essence, buying and selling is what you are. - Yes. - And you know, as part of my job, I'm thinking about the future. In fact, I was spending some time at the Long Now Foundation. And they are building a clock that will last 2,000 years. And I can't help but think, you know, we've evolved. So, trading, bartering, e-commerce, you talk about Craigslist, you talk about being practical.

How do you think all this will evolve in 2,000 years and what are your thoughts on the future? - First of all, the first thing that crossed my mind is like Victoria, I love you, but I'm not fucking Nostradamus. (audience laughter) That's the first thing I thought. Look, I think, you know, I think one thing, if you study human behavior, when you start getting to hundreds and thousands, you start to see circles, right, so I think technology is getting really close to bartering. Do you know how much nonsense everyone in this room has in their homes right now?

And then someone else has nonsense that person wants? I am fascinated by barter in such an interesting way. Look, we're always going to exchange, that's always what it is. You know, back to the woo-hoo of the audience. Cryptocurrencies are a lot of fun because they have opened up a lot of different thoughts in my mind. The fact that you can sell me your house and we can do it on the blockchain, and all the people in the middle who have nothing to do with anything get wiped out, and all that economics comes back to us, the energy bills.

If you start looking at some of this, 30% of the money you're paying for energy in your home is going to people in the middle who do nothing. So we are getting closer and closer to a world of us. Which I think is super fascinating and hugely vulnerable for governments. That's why I think it won't happen so quickly. If you really understand blockchain, China, the United States and Russia are not in the business to allow it to truly succeed. Because then we will become one team. If you take money away, the only thing left is the bombs, it becomes really like, I don't think people are playing, people are so obsessed with Bitcoin, they're not even on the theorem, they're not even on the blockchain, like This was real technology.

You're right, I'm in my heart, I mean, I basically taught my brother how to be an entrepreneur by doing garage sales and selling on Ebay. My favorite hobby in the world, and I'm not indulging you right now, you can go watch every movie from the last 10 years, my favorite hobby, like I can't wait until March and April to get started. I'm going to sell at the garage on Saturday morning. I find it easier to find a random fucking toy for 50 cents in someone's house and sell it for six dollars on Ebay than to close an $11 million deal for Vayner Media.

And by the way, it's not even close. And that's why I keep doing it. Go back to liking what you had to do, because when you can't breathe, why are you going to suffocate? And I think it will continue to evolve, I think it's becoming more and more interesting. What really interests me is that between your platform, Craigslist, Letgo, Facebook Marketplace, there is arb (arbitration), right. You don't even have to be, if you want to be efficient and actually make money, and not just do it for fun like I do, you don't need to leave your room and buy shit between the five platforms and find arbitrage.

It's crazy, it's crazy, it's an incredible time for retail. It's just an incredible time, there are big retailers going out of business, but we'd like, if you ask me, what is it that everyone in this room has the best ability to build a $500,000 a year revenue business that makes them $200,000? to take home, it's absolutely internet retail and it's not even close. And if you really understand how Amazon and Shopify work with those platforms, I mean, the fact that you can basically build any t-shirt business and use Facebook ads to target any long-term fan, right? Make t-shirts that say: I grew up in Chicago in the '90s, right? (audience laughter) Put it in front of him and he says, "I grew up in Chicago in the '90s. 'Fuck it, I'll buy it.'" If you understood how to run ads on Facebook, Facebook is priced very low right now.

There's so much inefficiency. That's what I mean. Facebook ads are so cheap that I can expose each of you to the three emotional things you give a damn about with a t-shirt and probably convert them 1 in 30 times the ads are that low. , the margin on t-shirts is so high, I can run it at scale and make 200k a year no problem, but people are trying to solve problems like building these billion dollar platforms AND everyone is going to lose and everyone is going to say. that if you don't make it practical soon, when the economy decides to do its thing, it will go back to corporate America.

That's how it is, so I don't know, I'm really starting to get passionate about it, let's be practical, I know it is. fun to create the next Waze. I know it's fun to create the next Instagram. It's just that the math is against you. Meanwhile, all this money is in the system and just sitting around, and guess what? I like some of the themes again, like no one's stopping you. There is no boss, there is no one to hire you, there is no one to decide, the Internet doesn't give a damn if you are black, white, girl, alien, the Internet is the Internet.

That's why it's the best. We will never achieve what the Internet will do. We will never be good enough, we have too many flaws. Unconscious bias won't be fixed anytime soon. The Internet doesn't give a damn. So take advantage, instead of thinking or getting pumped or whatever the fuck you are, just take advantage. Attention is like real estate, right? The Internet is so young that you can still buy beachfront properties. We weren't there when Manhattan was fucking, do you understand that a human being bought an acre in Manhattan for two dollars? You understand that that happened, right?

It seems ridiculous, but it happened. Let me remind you who spent the most on Google AdWords in the first five or six years. Amazon. And that's why they are who they are. And right now you have influencers on Instagram, you haveads on Facebook, you have really cheap attention to do whatever you want. There are people who are now used to buying e-commerce, as if there are many opportunities. I just think we're looking in the wrong places. Know. You know what it feels like, it feels like there are dollars on the ground, right? And there's like a huge billboard, like a billion around here.

And they say, and then they just fall into the hole. And there's all this fucking money. (audience laughter) Damn. Keep going so. Hello. How are you? You can give it to the next person to say hello. - Hello how are you? - Good. - I'm a little nervous. - Don't be. - Because you could criticize me, I don't want to end up on YouTube. - I don't want to criticize you. -But basically my project is called Black Barrier. We basically follow black people, I'm from Oakland, I'm from the Bay all day long. - Come on. - And for me, it's really exciting because I saw a lot of black people being here, a lot of gentrification happening.

And they wanted to access the black community without being part of that gentrification mechanism that consists of being here, in technology, having the monetary means to buy big, million-dollar houses, and marginalizing the people who really need support and help. additional. - Understood. - So for me, it started as a joke, like when I do Bay Area Day and greet people. I also mention many local black-owned small businesses. Now, the way I'm scaling this to monetize it is I've been doing smaller events to get my name out there, but we're launching a website. It will be theblackbayarea.org.

It's going to be a bigger ticketing center, so if you want to go ahead and take advantage of any black events locally, you'll be able to buy the tickets from me instead of doing it on Ticketmaster or Eventbrite, you'll just go ahead because I. It will be the word on the street. So I built those relationships with the promoters and the people I want to reach out to and leverage them. The second aspect will be electronic commerce. Now, I'm not going to lay it all out at once, I'm just going to walk you through the three things (mumbles).

The second is e-commerce from smaller merchants. So if you're from the Bay, you know this. One thing you really want, I will have it on the site, the most popular product a smaller local supplier will have. I don't know how I'm going to monetize it myself, but I know it's important for my community to have the visibility of someone going to a ticket center that reflects the community, being able to buy community items, things. That's as spicy as usual, you don't even have to go to a flea market, you can live in Boston but still buy (mumbles) barbecue sauce.

The third will be real estate. So I'm looking at black real estate investors to see, not investors, sorry, real estate agents to post house listings to make roommates for black people who want a room with black people, but also, no, It's real, it's Although life is real, it's real life... - Oh, I'm all ears, I laugh at them. - I mean, no, people getting toothpaste, mayonnaise and things like that is really very important. I mean, there's mayonnaise and toothpaste and things like that where people are going through uncomfortable situations, and those cultural conversations can't happen until they feel comfortable.

That's why they look for someone who can understand their culture and have grown up in their place of origin. - I agree, take a step back. How long have you been making multimedia content? - I'm rubbing into my seventh month. So far, I have had around 6,000 followers on Instagram. I've got DeVon Franklin, I've got Iamsu, I've got local notoriety of people just trying to get the word out about their business, because a lot of Instagrams and a lot of things that feature black people show someone in front saying hello. , this is my brand. I'm not doing all that, I'm putting people first.

And that's my goal, to push their product, push them, but also figure out how I could stay afloat. Because right now I do it from the heart, I don't do it to please, I don't bet on this and I put my life in it. - I understand clearly. - But I'm working on it like it might have worked for me before, you know? - So there are a lot of topics here that excite me and a couple of things that I think you should think about. So, first of all, my biggest belief right now is that everyone in this room and their business is a media company first, eat, do something second, everyone.

Like every business you have here, it doesn't matter what you tell me you do. My man over there with the video platform, first it's a media company, comma, it's a company. This is how I think the next 20 years will play out. So that there is not just one business, Ebay tomorrow will need to hire its editor-in-chief for real, non-branded content, not like most large corporations do, down to the smallest business idea here. First the media company, eat, then you do what you do. All this has its advantages because the media has very low prices and there is a lot of awareness.

Naturally, you have done it intuitively. You've started with the media. Now you're starting to see that something is blowing up a little bit and you're like, wait a minute, I'm going to make some money off of this, right? It's not like you started there, because I'm listening to you, it's not like you started there, you're debating whether you're going to do that, right? You're debating that. You're not sure, maybe you want to, you're still early, it's seven months. You know, let Met tell you a thing or two. Number one, it's very easy to start allowing, no matter what, too much trading, the reason it works is because it's pure.

The church and state you have to make between this content and the business you want is extremely important. That's why I work, I publish a lot of content in the business world for free and I have no interest in your money. I come out with a book, but I ask, I'm not interested, there is no top of the funnel, reorienting you, I don't hold anything back and say now you have to pay, motherfucker. You know, like... (audience laughter) I'm laying it all out there and letting the karma of the relationship work, and companies struggle with that.

So much so that I don't monetize my personality, I have always run other businesses, the wine store and an agency that tries to reach big companies, not the public I speak to. I think a couple of things, number one, if I could convince you not to think about this right now for two years, that would be the first thing I would tell you. Now, you may hate your job or how you pay for your living, and that's why you want to get this over with as quickly as possible, but I can tell you right now, if you can wait longer and not waste mental time on it, but triple what you do well, so for example, download Anchor and start interviewing these local businesses and start your podcast tomorrow, become a media company.

Take that podcast transcript and use Mechanical Turk or some outsourced people or an intern, and now you have a post on Medium or a post on LinkedIn, now you have written content, go ahead. (background noise drowns out female speaker) Microphone, microphone. Everything's fine. - Oh, so I already started with that. So, since I'm not a media person, I come from more of a nonprofit, so I have someone, we have people who write from the community on our Medium blog, people look at it. We also do a lot, I'm organizing a free photography exhibition for people in the community.

I do a lot of things, so it's just the fact that I think I want to focus on ticket sales because every time I hear people, when they come to me, especially black people, they say, what's going to play tonight? What is going to happen? in? I just want a unique website for the ticketing part to be really important, because I think it's a motivating factor for people to look for multimedia content. - Two things. It's very early, you've been here for seven months. And have you debated bringing in a partner? - Yes, but I have trust issues. (audience laughter) - Yes.

But let me tell you something about your trust issues. If you were to ask me, and I'm listening and we're vibrating right now, if you were to ask me to risk my children's health and can you successfully run an online ticketing business, I would bet against you. And so, I'm being serious with you. I think you clearly have something, as you told me about your experience, which is where your passion is. You're clearly striking a chord, you've only been there for seven months. (Background noise drowns out speaker) That's exactly, that's what happens when you're on something, and that's why it's moving faster than you expected, you're on to something, which now leads you to start going. to a place you don't feel so comfortable with.

For example, you're spitting ticket sales and retail, and I heard you, not entirely right away. But ticketing and retail, and then what was the third thing you said? - Real estate. - Real estate. I get it, I get it. But it was a fucking disaster. Like your thought process is a mess. Like I said, he's a fucking piece of shit. But your first part is so out of the ordinary that you need to start interviewing people you trust and figure out how to bring in someone who really knows how to do that part. The biggest problem is that people want to be everything, they want to do everything, as if we were not.

For example, I couldn't get any entry-level jobs in my own company because I couldn't pass the written exam or the math exam for the two disciplines, I couldn't. I own everything, and the truth is I couldn't work for my own company at an entry level job. That's the truth. It's not me making a joke, it's the fucking facts. There are many people who know how to build simple technology. First of all, they would not build technology, they would rent the technology from ticketing platforms, e-commerce platforms and real estate platforms and pay nothing for it. . No one would scam them into building it.

I understand, but you have to do what you do. And what you do is have a pulse on what the hell is really happening and you know how to tell it. That's where all the influence is. If you had six million people on that Instagram account, you could sell a lot of t-shirts, a lot of tickets, and have a lot of classified ads. You've only been there for seven months and this has just begun. Going back to what I talked about, you are a young, young, young woman. You can look at a 19 year old, I saw a 19 year old here before, I just said fuck, that's young.

You know, but... (audience laughter) You're that young. You are too young to do something that will make you happy for the rest of your life. If you go into a coma for six years and just focus on what you do, you have a much better chance of being successful than trying to decide that you're going to be the one to handle the business aspects, especially since I heard you spit. the way you thought about it, and you're clearly not deep into your business mindset yet, which may happen later. But I think you need to do one, I'm trying to give you very good advice, you need to do one of two things.

Bring in a business partner to drive the business parts so you can focus on the content, or stay focused on the content for another 15 months and revisit later. Those are the options, in my opinion. I could be wrong, but that's how I feel. (background noise drowns out the speaker) I understand. Patience is a strength and people think it is a weakness. Cool. You are welcome. One more. - Okay, I'll shoot, if that's okay with you. Since you're a media mogul... - I'll buy YouTube, don't worry. - Given that you are a media mogul who has built such a successful company and you look at it from the perspective of where you are now, what first steps would you take in terms of creating a media entity or a news outlet? company, you know, saying that you had no followers or funding or that you really scrapped it to create a content-based business? - I think the best advice for a content-based business is to scratch your own itch. - Scratch what? - Own itching.

For example, create the media company, the blog, the Instagram account that you wish existed. Because you know it. You know, you are one of them. Come on guys, do you know how big internet forums still are? Like, 1994 technology, because small groups, small neighborhoods, that's why the young woman who was talking about who goes to the bathroom, I hope, right now, it's like, that's why it worked, because it was niche, it was niche. . I'm telling you, man, people are trying to boil the ocean. Go tight. You know, like going tight. Like Barstool's victory because that team did what it wanted, it wanted irreverence, it wanted a mixed culture, a different way.

That is the only way to move forward, because you have to understand that it is an incredible moment, but we can all do it. So it's a question of supply and demand, right? It's an incredible moment, it's an incredible moment. But everyone can start one. So it's easy and difficult. Which for me means reaching the deepest depths. I mean, go very limited to what you know, right? And delving into that, I think that's the place to go, and then use the modern places where there is attention. If you start a media company today, you mustprioritize voice and social media, not website and email.

Because it is low-priced care. You can grab that attention from Instagram or a podcast and then start a website. I bought PureWow, a women's lifestyle company, a year ago. And I'm going to release one for men, and it's all going to be thrown on the backs of my audience. And I built that audience on social media and voice, and I'll take it to a website and other things as well. And so I already have it. And we all have that too, we have what we have. We have our lives, our passions, our interests. I want people to become narrow, very narrow, there is a real long tail business, there really is.

I mean, there really is. Cool. And I wanted to make this boy. - Thank you very much, Gary. Actually, I have to thank you for all the content, because I actually put it out there and it works. - Thank you. - My problem is that I am a doctor and... - Golfer. - Yes, sure. I'm a plastic surgeon and a pretty good one too. Actually (mumbles) and I have a startup as CEO. And the problem is that, following your advice, we put everything on the street, we document everything. And we have a good problem. Because we have an audience that we built, an audience for my patients, and now we have an audience for entrepreneurs, people who want to follow the same path.

And now the problem is that when people Google my name, they can find both. And maybe some patients like to say hey, I don't want to do this guy's nose, because they don't have full time just for that. And on the other side... - You're looking at it wrong. You know what I mean? Well, because you are looking at the disadvantages, not the advantages. - Yes, that's what I'm asking you. Because it's a little new to me, you know. Just this whole audience, and now people are doing, well, sending emails and direct on Instagram, I want to build a business in a new field, and an extra, oh, I'm (mumbles), well... - It's It's very interesting to have you here, because I think one of the things I'm trying to figure out is that the people who follow my advice are winning. - Yes, sure.

People, I can say it works, sure, this works. Yes, you can buy his books. It works. - What happens is that they get into the crossroads that happen to you, which is that you are trying to do it to build your chiropractic company, your yogurt shop, your surfing knowledge, and then what happens is that now they flood you of people. who want you to teach them how to do that for their people. - Safely. - Look, I think, to your point, you said it very quickly, it's a good problem. I would definitely tell you not to worry about it.

Well, since I have so much stuff, if you look at my Instagram content, right. - Every day. - Thank you. Yes, but, thank you, but let me... - What can I say? -If you look at my last post, my last post on Instagram is the one where I'm hanging out with Gunna, the up-and-coming rapper from Atlanta. That's not necessarily what Chase Bank, ABI and SAP, my clients, want to see from me. But the truth is the truth. - Yes. - I run the best agency and that's why they will hire you. If you are excellent at your craft, there will be no one who will not come to you because you are teaching other people how to build a business, everything will be clearly positive.

Don't allow yourself to look at the negative or negative or perceived problems. For every person you lose who says, "He doesn't spend all his time on that," you'll get another three because you spend all your time on that. - Good for them. I don't give a damn about them (mumbles). - Life is a network game. Do you understand? Too many people focus on what they are losing without understanding that those same tactics make them win. When I started speaking in 2009, I swore a lot. And I didn't wear suits. And you know, there are a lot of young people here, this may seem strange, but that was not fucking acceptable just eight years ago.

And I was getting emails, then I got an agent that I talked to and I was getting tons of emails. Literally, CAA, my agency, would call me once a month and say, "If you stop swearing, we can easily get you four more gigs a month." And I responded consistently for three years, son of a bitch... (audience laughter) If I stop cursing, no one will hear me speak because it won't be me. And guess what, I won because the world changed when you are yourself and you are sincere. Jason, I really loved what you were talking about, can you imagine how much the world has evolved?

Let me leave you with this while you think about things if you would have said that to a parent 12 years ago when I was 15. 15 year old daughter, they would rather a 15 year old daughter get into a stranger's car four times a day instead of driving his own car, you would have been laughed out of the room (audience laughter). But if you live in a. rich rich rich neighborhood and your daughter turns 16, the great new gift is not a new Benzo, the great new gift is unlimited Uber (audience laughter) Right? It's true, could you imagine if I had a video from 15 years ago and said that one day 15 years from now, all of you would be sending your 15 year old daughters to strange 43 year old Benz cards 24 hours a day? (audience laughter) They would have thrown me out of the room with laughter.

The rules change. The rules change. To be very honest, this, especially when I talk to my friends and minorities, says that urban culture is the culture of America now. When Merbo and I talk about it, it's like it's the truth. It's just the truth. Show me anything that's popular and I'll show you where it started, Atlanta. You know, it's so basic. It's so basic. Literally, if you told me that my mission as a brand for the next seven years was to get 15-year-old white women to buy something, I would start with Atlanta rappers. Because that's how it ends there.

And so that you can run away from things, you like to look at things, I just think that, no matter where you are or what you are, look at hip-hop, I'm 42 years old, I grew up with hip-hop where The kids faked how hard they They worked because their aunt lived in Oakland and they visited her once a year. And they said they were from Oakland, but they weren't too sure. You know what I mean? It was fucking nonsense, but in 1992, '93, '94, people remember, you had to pretend you were tough because there was only one movement.

Lil Yachty would have gotten his face punched in 1992. (audience laughter) Yeah, right? But if you had remained faithful, it would have come to you, because now everything is acceptable. And then everyone is drifting towards something. If I say put your damn flag on the ground of who the fuck you are, I have a funny feeling it'll get to you, especially with the way the world works now. Because this whole Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer thing is so simple. It's over. On the Internet you cannot hide, everything will be exposed. Do you know how wonderful the world will be in 50 years?

Let me make you optimistic. We're taking a step back, do you know why? We face things that we must face. We've been faking the truth. So we're taking a big step back and we're dealing with it. It's like it's a painful fucking decade, it hasn't even started. We're going to have to deal with a lot of shit, but let me tell you what our grandchildren will experience. They're going to live in a world, because of the total exposure of who we are, where everyone realizes that everyone is screwed. There is not a single person here, not a single person here who does not do something that right now we consider a real defect.

It's just the truth, it's just the truth. We, as a collective, have to go through the pain of that, but when we get to the other side, like when we're all old and watching this, remember this talk. That's pretty selfish, but try to like it... (audience laughter). Try developing this yourself and forget where you started. Let me follow that path. We will be happy because it will be different. It's going to be very, very different because everyone will start to accept people's flaws. And we're going to have very different conversations, and things like marriage and things like money and sex and race, like we're going to have real conversations for the next 20 or 30 years, get ready because this isn't going to stop. .

And we are simply not the animals we wish we were. And we just have to face that, acknowledge it, go through that painful process. But we will be much better people 50 years from now because of this moment in this era, because the Internet is exposing us, and I am very grateful for that. I'm happy because the truth should win, but you have to go through some things to get to the other side, and that's what we're going to do. That's great on a holistic level and I'm sure a lot of people, looking around here, are very passionate about it.

On your personal level, do it with yourself as a person and as an entrepreneur, and everything will go to a totally different place, I promise. Own your flaws, own your strengths, surround yourself with the other shit and things will start to come together. Thanks for having me. (applause, cheers) (pop music) (calm music)