The Current State of the NFT Market with Garyvee

Garyvee joins us to discuss what the current state of NFTs is, what's he been up to since his 1st Bankless appearance, and huge news coming out of Gary's project, VeeFriends! ------ Galxe | Explore Crypto’s #1 Credential Network https://bankless.cc/Galxe ------ SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/ ️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/ ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: ️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum ACROSS | BRIDGE TO LAYER 2 https://bankless.cc/Across BRAVE | THE BROWSER NATIVE WALLET https://bankless.cc/Brave NEXO | CRYPTO FINANCIAL HUB https://bankless.cc/Nexo LEDGER | NANO HARDWARE WALLETS https://bankless.cc/Ledger ️FUEL | THE MODULAR EXECUTION LAYER https://bankless.cc/Fuelpod ------ Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 4:18 What Gary's Been Up To? 14:00 What Makes an NFT Work 17:07 Surviving the Bear Market 20:27 All-in On NFTs 21:35 Speculation 23:00 Bigger Companies Entering 28:17 Huge VeeFriends Announcement 33:04 VeeFriends Community 34:15 NFT Project Advice 36:40 What Still Needs to be Built Out? 40:08 Being Quiet 44:40 Building Mode 45:55 Crypto Currencies 47:20 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Resources: Garyvee https://garyvaynerchuk.com/ VeeFriends https://veefriends.com/ Gary's 1st Bankless Appearance https://youtu.be/XrQHwjqCsDw ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Ryan Sean Adams?

  Bankless Nation, welcome to another State of the Nation episode. The question on the menu today is, are NFTs back? David, they had a fantastic week last week, but they've been down pretty bad recently, and we have brought the perfect guest on to talk about the future of NFTs. Gary V, Gary Vanderchuck, which launched one of the most successful NFT projects that have been launched to date. It's a project called V Friends. Now, he was here a year and a half ago, and he actually announced the launch of V Friends partially on the Bankless Podcast. So, we wanted to regroup with Gary and talk a little bit about the future of NFTs. David, what should listeners look out for in this episode, which they pay attention to, and why are we talking about this now?

• 0:44David Hoffman?

  Yeah, there's two worlds of the NFT world. There are the internal to crypto NFT projects, and then there's the creators out there who are leveraging this new technology to express themselves to their communities and interact with their communities in brand-new ways. And that is really the frontier that Gary is pioneering, how to have NFTs as a communication vehicle between him and his very engaged fanbase. And so, as NFTs have changed from the mania of 2021 that was, to the current build market that is of 2022, we want to pick Gary's brain as to what it's like to be an NFT creator in the era of 2022 NFTs. So, that's what I'm paying attention to, is how to leverage NFTs to engage with your

• 1:27David Hoffman?

  fans now that the hype cycle is behind us, Ryan.

• 1:30Ryan Sean Adams?

  I think some of these build market projects, NFT projects, are going to come out a lot stronger on the other side of this, and V Friends may be one to watch as well. Guys, we'll be right back with the episode, Gary V talking all about NFTs. But before we do, we want to thank the sponsors that made this episode possible.

• 1:45David Hoffman?

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• 2:30David Hoffman?

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• 3:13David Hoffman?

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• 3:56David Hoffman?

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• 4:19Ryan Sean Adams?

  All right, guys, I want to introduce you yet again to Gary Vee, second time on the podcast, the first time he launched the V Friends NFT. We're going to talk about that. He's a serial entrepreneur. He's an internet personality, of course, the founder of V Friends, which is an NFT project that helps him enhance his community. Perks, access, got all sorts of things. We want to explore NFTs today and including, I think, towards the end, Gary has something special to announce for the community. So we're going to talk about that as well. Gary, what's up, man? Welcome back to Bankless.

• 4:51Speaker 02

  It's so good to be with you guys. Thank you so much. Thanks for everybody who's watching. It's a rainy day here in New York City.

• 4:57Ryan Sean Adams?

  Indeed it is.

• 4:58Speaker 02

  But I'm grinding along. It's been a big day.

• 5:01Ryan Sean Adams?

  Well, you know what? Grinding, I think, is a good theme, right? Because we're, at least in the wider crypto world, we're in kind of this bear market, you know? And so that's what people tell me anyway. I'm not feeling particularly bearish, but some people are. Prices are down in a lot of areas. It's been about a year and a half. I think you came on in May of sometime 2021. In launching V Friends during kind of this secular bull market that we had in NFTs and crypto, like in general. Tell us what you've been up to since that time. Like, catch us up and give people a feel, if you will, Gary, for like, what is the V Friends project itself? Like, what is the purpose of it? And what have you been working on since we last spoke?

• 5:42Speaker 02

  I mean, since we last spoke, a ton, because that was just the launch of Series One. Since then, that August, September, I created something called Book Games, where if you bought 12 copies of my latest book, you would get NFTs that I did on Immutable, which then became like functional for something I did in January, where there was an exchange. And then that triggered advantages to get Series Two mints and special Series Twos that nobody else could get. Series Two came out in May of this year.

• 6:13Speaker 02

  Um, uh, or in April and then the big play, the original premise of V Friends was to establish intellectual property, Smurf, Scooby Doo, um, all that stuff and, um, and Disney, Pokemon, like, how substantial of a Sesame Street-like IP can I create? Because it's something I've always wanted to do. If you look at, you know, you look at wrestling and toys and garage sales, this has been an obsession of mine. I thought I was gonna buy a nostalgic IP. This was something I talked a lot about in my career. Once I saw the NFT realities of 2021, it was funny, when I saw CryptoKitties in 17, I was like, huh, but I just didn't, I didn't really get there.

• 6:57Speaker 02

  2020, NBA top shot, and then that brought me quickly to CryptoPunks, and I was like, oh, and then obviously, everything that happened that winter into 2021. Um, so the mission has always been build intellectual property, things like the Uno collaboration, like, I've gotta build these characters. Now, at a higher level, the characters are meant to do what Gary Vaynerchuk likes doing as Gary Vee, which is spread positivity and kindness and compassion and patience, but also tenacity and work ethic. And, you know, I think we've become so blue and red,

• 7:36Speaker 02

  and I'm so deeply passionate about purple, the world has become or, it's really about and. And I have a substantial mission for V Friends to be a positive impact on the universe, the way Marvel and Sesame Street and other intellectual properties have, um, done so. And so, that's been the focus. On top of that, to make the initial cost valuable to people, I did a three-year super conference, right, called VCon. And so, since we last talked, I think I had one of the most substantial events in the space, which was in Minnesota, at US Bank Stadium. We had 7,000, 8,000 people there. It was an incredible four-day weekend. We had an incredible amount

• 8:20Speaker 02

  of speakers and just enormous amounts of love and positivity and practicality. And- You know, to me, I'm very proud of the initial costs of V Friends being valuable to the three events that people are going to. We'll be announcing VCon 2023, probably this month, which is way ahead of what we did last year. We've learned a lot. Uno collaborations, merchandise collaborations, a Reebok sneaker collaboration that is coming. Trading cards that if you go to eBay right now have completely dominated, which has been huge for me. So, you know, like little subtle things, like you try to expand the IP, like I grew up loving Flintstones vitamins. I did a collab with Mary Ruth. Wow, that's awesome.

• 9:02Speaker 02

  You know, and so, you know, I've been doing a lot. What I haven't been doing is, look, I said my piece. I put out an obnoxious amount of content in the height of the height of the height. And I already see you smiling there, David, so you know where I'm about to go. I have unlimited receipts of saying 99% of the projects that were booming in the boom were going to zero.

• 9:30Speaker 02

  So why I believe that? Because I saw the behaviors. I didn't feel like, I felt it was internet stocks. I mean, I said it constantly. You guys both know this. So what I've been doing is the thing I said I was gonna do, which is operate and work. I've built a 45, 50-person team. I've got another 30 hires. I have meetings every day. I raised capital from Andreessen Horowitz because I want to be around. I don't know. Look, we're in a bear market. I don't know who's excited. Forget about crypto. Is anybody paying attention to the severity of the war in Europe? The macro politics there, the inflation, the underlying reports from FedEx.

• 10:15Speaker 02

  Housing's about to crash. I really believe that. A lot of companies, consumer confidence is down. And so, I don't know, like, I don't expect the great winter, you know? And so, like, it's not like this, my, my stock portfolio doesn't look good either compared to last summer. And my trading cards don't look great. And I don't know what, you know, people expect, like, the economies don't go on forever, right? And so...

• 10:47Speaker 02

  You know, what have I been doing? Everything I said I was gonna do, right? Which is like really work really, really hard. And I'm very proud of the work I'm doing. And we've got a lot of work to do. And to get to the audacity of saying things like Marvel, or Scooby Doo, or Hanna-Barbera, or Transformers, that's gonna take the rest of my career. And that's what I plan on doing. This is forever for me. And I've got to create demand and interest and character development. Like I've got an ecosystem. And then I have to do incredible, interesting technology. Like, one thing I've not alluded to at all. I know my Discord's about to blow up. Let me go into my Discord to see if any... Because I know a lot of them are watching.

• 11:27Speaker 02

  You know, I've been doing a lot of tech innovation. We have a hefty tech team who's been building something I'm very excited about.

• 11:36Speaker 02

  That will hit the day of life this year. And it's pretty advanced tech. You know, you've got a lot of Web 2, a lot of Web 3. We're playing a lot of Web 2.5. Do you need everything to be anonymous? That's how it felt 18 months ago now. Is username and sign-in worth it to make the utilities of the things? Like, it's super fun. And then to your point, what else have I been doing? I've been staying mentally strong while the, you know, market in the macro has been incredibly affected. And I'm incredibly compassionate that there's anxiety and concern and angst and winter vibes. I, you know, I hope and pray that everybody heard rule number one, which was consistent, which is do not spend money

• 12:19Speaker 02

  you can't afford to lose in these high things. You know, a lot of people did. And, you know, I continue to try to provide value. Like, I love that you can continue to add utility, right? I did this incredible meetup at my dad's store, The Wine Library, for people that had the wine cellar. It was a great time. We've done some great stuff with my pickleball team meetups.

• 12:42Speaker 02

  And then unofficial things. I'm in Germany giving a keynote. Let's go meet up with 200 B-Friends holders. So just really focused, you know, just incredibly focused. And focused like an athlete. Like, my New York Jets, who beat the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend. They were down by 10 points very late in the game. The fans in Pittsburgh were cheering with seven minutes to go, laughing at my Jets. The Jet fans were concerned, booing their own players. I have to be an athlete on the field. I can't, even my most ardent believers, pre V friends, have said things in Discord and Twitter that hurt my feelings, but I understand why. They have financial losses on paper if they haven't sold yet. And it doesn't feel good when something's worth something and then it's not.

• 13:27Speaker 02

  But I have to stay focused on the field and tune out any positive or negative comments. Just like when I was getting the accolades last winter, I didn't hear it. I needed to focus on the mission. And that's, that's what I'm focused on, like a falcon. Focus falcon's a big V friend. I'm focused like a falcon and I'm gonna let history be the judge, not me. Fuck me. And definitely not anonymous accounts on Twitter who got opinions, who've never operated a paper bag, let alone a big company.

• 13:59David Hoffman?

  Sure. Gary, there's a lot of just NFT projects out there and some, some, like you said, have like, you know, trended to zero, others are keeping their head above water, others are doing fine. What, what are you doing that you think is working? Like, what, what's the secret sauce to make an NFT project work these days? And what things might an NFT project need to jettison if it's not working? It's like, what, what things are we keeping? What things are we doubling down on? What things are we jettisoning?

• 14:26Speaker 02

  I don't, I don't judge something working based on floor price.

• 14:30David Hoffman?

  Sure, yes, but like, like, community, energy, community, like engagement, etc.

• 14:34Speaker 02

  You can't, you can't value that either. Too many people are financially incentivized and everyone's getting smoked. And then like, like, like it, the.

• 14:43David Hoffman?

  I mean, okay, whatever, whatever criteria of success you want.

• 14:45Speaker 02

  Well, that's what I'm setting it up, right? Like, to your point, David, I think people are very confused about businesses. Like, Facebook was a disaster this many months in. Like, I'm pumped for invisible people. I'm pumped for, you know, creatures, I'm pumped for world of, people are working. The problem is they're all publicly traded company DNA now, right? Like, people care about it day to day. I just want to tell everybody, because I was close to these companies. They're the fucking receipts right there. This is, this is, like, back to receipts. I'm in the fucking Robert Salinger, like, this is an email from Uber thanking my brother for being the first rider of Uber in New York.

• 15:22David Hoffman?

  Wow, that's very cool.

• 15:24Speaker 02

  These are fucking receipts, brother. Like, and I can tell you right now, 18, 24 months in, none of these companies looked great.

• 15:32Speaker 02

  I'm not fucking willing to judge fucking Bored Ape yet. I'm not willing to judge any of these projects yet. And so I think, like, you know, I don't know, like, what, to answer your question, the people. I'm building an organization. I'm focused on the people, the process, you know, like, there's, there's missteps along the way. The gift goat has not gone as well as I want to. I've jumped in and tried to work it, but it takes months for these things to, you know, you know, execute on, so I focus on that. I'm excited about, you know, like, the people I'm bringing in, the talent. You know, I just, uh, my partner in Empathy Wines, John Troutman, just finished his earnout at Constellation, is coming to consult with feet friends. That's a note. And you know, when you're a head coach and you're bringing back one of your assistants,

• 16:14Speaker 02

  you know, like, I don't know, I'm fucking, I'm focused out here. So, anyway, to answer your question, the things that are working, what you keep, is the people on your team that can do shit. What's not working, people that can't do shit, and you've given them a chance, but they haven't, you gotta really go. And so, I'm an operator, like, and I'm not willing to put my head up from the sea and see what the stock ticker says. It has nothing to do with anything for me. Meaning, I'd love for everything to be rosy, but I'm not in control of that. I didn't call Putin and say, "Go attack Ukraine." That wasn't me. I've got to focus on fucking be friends.

• 16:55Speaker 02

  And what I'm doing is laying the foundation for a lot of people to care about these characters, which will build a real company, which will allow me to do incredible things for the people that hold the NFTs.

• 17:07Ryan Sean Adams?

  What's interesting to me is, right, so as you said, like, over 99% of these NFT projects are gonna die this bear cycle, right? Like, we have to be real about that. But 1% might survive, might be a fraction of 1%. What's it gonna take? What does it take to survive during the bear market? And Gary, what's it gonna take to restore confidence in NFTs? Like, when are NFTs actually going to come back? Is there some feature that we have to unlock? Is there a focus area? Is it like, all about utility now? Like, what's the new meta? And how do we get out of this bear market?

• 17:44Speaker 02

  Couple of things. I want to apologize to Dewey Perrin, who just said in the comments, "I think this guy's inseparable, inseparable." So, obviously, I want to apologize for that, because I don't want to make Dewey upset. You know, I think people have to provide value, to your point. When Marvel comic books came out in the 40s, right, 30s, what have you, after years of cartoons and toys and other comics, people then cared, and all of a sudden, you cared to own, you know, a Spider-Man, or a Superman DC, or Batman. And so, if you're talking about collectible value, like, "I just want to own this," like a Andy Warhol, or a Spider-Man #1, or a Jordan sneaker, that takes decades.

• 18:27Speaker 02

  It, you know, which is why I made those videos about 99% to zero. Like, it wasn't gonna work. Like, it went too high, more like Beanie Babies, or stocks, like Pets.com. In the short term, to your point, it's gonna be utility. What that utility is, is access other items, physical items, you know, community events, the thing that I started be friends with. Like, be friends were sold. With an underlying three-year super conference that justified the initial cost. Then shit got crazy and depending on when you got in, it changed the variable. But the original layout was thoughtful to this moment because you need to provide value, right?

• 19:07Speaker 02

  And so I think, you know, every project needs to think about, can, this is the beauty of the blockchain. Can I add more value for the person that's holding it? Value comes in a million different things. I just did something with the gift goats. I mentioned that I'm not happy with, you know, the gifts that I've been saying, I need to do a better job. I added NFTs as part of it early on. And I think that might have fucked with my psychology, but they want the gift. And then I added a new thing this October. The gift goats and I are going to be in Atlanta for two hours in an epic basketball court. Right? With Shaquille O'Neal. That's just a very small group. Probably only 100 to 200 of the 555 gift goats can make it because they're all over the world.

• 19:52Speaker 02

  You know, an intimate two hours of business Q and A, some fun and games, some photos, some hanging out. You know, like.

• 19:58Ryan Sean Adams?

  How'd you get, how'd you get Shaq on board?

• 20:01Speaker 02

  I, I use my business development skills. You know, I also have a lot of relationships. This is why I'm confident. This is why I keep believing in myself like, brother, I'm not going to stop until it's good. Like, I don't understand how anybody doesn't understand that. I'd rather fucking die than let cynics be able to write the history of you friends not being a good project. I can do this forever. I'm going to do this forever.

• 20:27Ryan Sean Adams?

  So are you, are you like all in on like NFTs? I, I, I know, I mean.

• 20:31Speaker 02

  I'm all in on NFTs. The NFT technology is remarkable. It's insane.

• 20:37Ryan Sean Adams?

  Why don't people see it, Gary? Because a lot of people don't see it.

• 20:41Speaker 02

  Because the first year of people discovering it, their scammiest friend made $83,000 selling a penguin with a penis in its eye. Think about that. Of course, people don't, normal people don't get it. They're right. It's the same reason people didn't get the internet in 99. You had normal people saying, how the hell is pets.com worth $85 billion? They haven't sold any stuff yet. I'm not even sure chewy.com has that valuation, you know? So like, you know, they're because they're right. The greed took over, the short term flipping took over. And that shadowed the incredible, you know, black and white of the incredible technology

• 21:25Speaker 02

  infrastructure of a global scaled ledger that can affirm ownership, that can unlock everything.

• 21:35Ryan Sean Adams?

  You know what's, what's interesting about this market? And it's maybe different than other businesses you've run. But like you tell me, it's like, people aren't used to the volatility of crypto. Like it messes with their minds and messes with them psychologically, right?

• 21:49David Hoffman?

  We've seen the internet before, but like it's hashing prices and tickers to these things is weird. It's like throws people around.

• 21:55Speaker 02

  I'm empathetic, man. Money fucks up things.

• 21:59Ryan Sean Adams?

  I mean, the highs are so high and the lows are so low and the just the sense of.

• 22:03Speaker 02

  They have to play with money they can afford to lose. It's a volatile asset right now.

• 22:09Ryan Sean Adams?

  Do you see that ever changing?

• 22:11Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 22:14Speaker 02

  When this becomes normalized, you know, of course, but I also think it changes in certain projects like

• 22:23Speaker 02

  it has to be able to do something. It can't be a speculative thing. This is why I've always liked NFTs. I understood that the entrepreneurs could create the thing it does. Right? Like whereas with, with, you know, and that and currencies can too, but I just think too many people relying on comic book and art and toy flipping and baseball cards, not enough on operational business. Like you need to think like Amex Black Card and Chase Rewards and Live Nation and.

• 22:57Speaker 02

  Tops and Mattel, like you have to think bigger business.

• 23:02Ryan Sean Adams?

  Are you seeing these big businesses like continuing to build during the bear market? So David and I just did an episode last week and like we noticed like Disney is hiring lawyers, IP specialists to specialize in their blockchain IP technology. I mean, Sotheby's just rolled out an entire platform for NFT art. And these things during the, the, the bull run, uh, I mean, they were shattered from the rooftops. Everyone was talking about it. Now during kind of the, the bear run, some of the developments of, of these like companies are completely unnoticed. No one even pays attention. No one cares. What are you seeing from your side? Are big companies entering the game?

• 23:39Speaker 02

  This like, you know, my energy is very matter of fact, man. Because like, it's almost as if nobody heard all the logical conversation of last year from me or anybody else. Right? Like, yes, this is one of the biggest technology shifts of the human race.

• 23:58Speaker 02

  But everything was so caught up in the short-term flip game that it just clouded. Yes, to your point, if you have Google Alerts on NFT right now and you read what's happening day to day, you would be bullish. You're not bullish because you bought a NFT for $8,000 that's now trading at $600 and you're mad. And you're supposed to be mad. I get it. But I hope that you're also mad at yourself that you knew you were taking a risk. Like, don't be mad at anybody but yourself, kind of thing. Accountability is important. Like I have a ton of things that have gone poorly and I'm like, ugh, I got caught up, I got excited. But I also was buying for different reasons. I was trying to learn. This is why I was petrified.

• 24:41Speaker 02

  The only thing I tweeted more than 99% of going to zero was don't buy what I'm buying. Cause I knew I was buying things because I wanted to learn how people were going to do things. And if it was in my wallet, see if they, like, I was in discovery mode, um, supporting people that I just met on Twitter. Cause I want to, because I want to, that's not a good investment thesis. You know, I like this person. I want to support their art. Like, you know, so.

• 25:05Ryan Sean Adams?

  There are worse investment thesis out there than that, though.

• 25:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, there is. And I think, thank you. And I, I feel good about it. But like, you know, I'm in a curious spot. I have a lot of eyes on me and so I'm empathetic to it, but. Yeah, brother, like Disney's really not fooling around. Mattel is not fooling around. Like, like, you know, Pokemon's not fooling. Like, this is real stuff.

• 25:24David Hoffman?

  Yeah, we've actually been given the privilege of having this embargo now released announcement for what you were doing with Toys R Us, which is something we want to get into and how this is kind of emblematic of just more and more companies starting to take the NFT pill. So, Gary, we all want to talk about that, along with your very engaged, almost 1,000 followers or like a community members here in the YouTube comments. So, we're going to talk about all this and more right after we talk to some of these fantastic sponsors that make the show possible. In all of my years in crypto, I've never been hacked, scammed, or lost money to a thief. And a lot of that credit goes to my Ledger hardware wallet. The Ledger Nano X and the Ledger Nano S plus hardware wallets allow users like you and me to secure and manage all of our crypto assets and our NFTs, all with the security of storing users' private

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• 28:16David Hoffman?

  Optimism, Polygon, Arbitrum, or Boba Networks.

• 28:19Ryan Sean Adams?

  Hey, guys. We are back with Gary Vee talking all about NFTs. Where'd they go? Are they back? What's going to be the next thing that is going to happen in the NFT world? Gary, I'll tell you one thing that's gonna happen, because you guys announced it today. This is a big V Friends announcement, and this is on what we were just talking about, big companies entering the game here. You've got a collaboration of collectible characters with Macy's and Toys R Us? Is that what's happening?

• 28:46Speaker 02

  It's a big deal for me. All 400-plus Macy's around the country that have Toys R Us store within stores will be getting V Friends literally, you know, right next to G.I. Joe and My Little Pony and Transformers and Pokémon. V Friends end caps everywhere, plush and collectible, and then Blind Bags, little ones. It's a huge deal. It's also huge, I haven't talked about it. I'm giving you kind of the exclusive. The Flow Code is gonna be a big deal. Right now, it's a preview page, but long-form content around the character development. Think He-Man. So He-Man came out as toys earlier than the cartoon was ready. So they put little comic books in the toy

• 29:30Speaker 02

  so that you could get into He-Man, because there was no way to get into He-Man. 99% of people that are gonna see this in Macy's, Toys R Us stores around the country have no idea what V Friends are. So kids are gonna kind of like hopefully fall in love with the imagery. This wizard is super cool.

• 29:48Speaker 02

  Right? And so like, you know, but the storytelling, like, I'm really on this mission, guys. So anyway, huge distribution on macy's.com right now on pre-sale international is coming in two weeks on V friend shop. We'll be doing a fulfillment for international. But this is how you do it. This is how you get people to start getting involved. And like, the more people fall in love with the be the bigger person character, right? The more things start to happen where I can do something with those 260 holders of series one and series two, big be the bigger person. Like, this is super exciting. I think people are missing what real operators are going to be able to do. And I think real operators have to build

• 30:32Speaker 02

  affinity in the characters, toys, books, cartoons, movies, but then also build technology and utility for the original NFT holders. And I'm on that journey.

• 30:43Ryan Sean Adams?

  So this is like, this is like an IP play almost, right? It's kind of like Marvel. It's kind of like Star Wars.

• 30:48Speaker 02

  It is an IP play.

• 30:49Ryan Sean Adams?

  So what's interesting about the way you're doing it, right? Is like, you start with the digital, the NFT.

• 30:53Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 30:53Ryan Sean Adams?

  And you're working towards the physical, whereas like traditional, like a Disney, or, you know, some other big IP player, they're starting with the character and then moving to another direction, right?

• 31:04Speaker 02

  Well, well, they started with whatever they started with. Pokemon started with a card game, and then a video game, and then a cartoon. Like, Harry Potter started as a book. Like, Magic the Gathering, like, like, you know, like, so, no, you start with what you start with, right? I've got a huge thing coming out with Reebok, right? So Reebok, huge collaboration coming out. So I've got, you know, with, with, again, the aspiring alpaca, like, I'm really, really trying to build this. And so, just broke a V friend. This is very upsetting, guys. Live in the air. Me trying to be cool.

• 31:44Ryan Sean Adams?

  So there's no NFT element to these things. They're just the viso of a...

• 31:49Speaker 02

  That's the intuitive iguana.

• 31:51Ryan Sean Adams?

  Oh, my God, what happened?

• 31:53Speaker 02

  I did bad.

• 31:54Ryan Sean Adams?

  Nothing, no surprise inside of there?

• 31:57David Hoffman?

  What's it spell like? But okay, so with these products, there's no NFT aspect or like Web3 aspect. They are just a physical product of a metaverse NFT.

• 32:06Speaker 02

  My job is to bring value. Now, if you own these characters in NFT form, you're getting this stuff for free. But I'm doing two things at once. One, access. If you own the wine cellar background in series two, you came to the store, you got a free wine, you got a free Q and A experience, right? And then building affinity. This collaboration, this execution is about getting many, many, many more people in the world to care about these characters, which manifests in many different ways. Ultimately, for me, the catchall is the people owning the NFTs, especially series one. Like, I stay up at night thinking about this.

• 32:50Speaker 02

  I've got 40 years, 50 years, you know, 46, 40, 50, 60 years. And I've got to do as much demand creation, much affinity, storytelling. And I've got to do a lot of technology and utility and I've got to bring value.

• 33:04David Hoffman?

  What's a typical V-Friend holder like? I mean, you must have...

• 33:08Speaker 02

  I run the gamut. You know, as you guys know, I brought so many new people into the space because I had a big audience and they run the gamut, like true investors, collectors, flippers, just people that have appreciated my content that just want to own one for collectible, the same reason I collect jets. I mean, why do I have this Carmelo Anthony? He brought me happiness. Carmelo brought me happiness. You know, the Knicks didn't, you know, I like him, so I buy that. Like, a lot of people like that I taught them common sense and so they're going to buy this. You know, it's like, there's a lot of different reasons, but, you know, and then just other people in the space that, you know, I think there's a lot of people that are starting

• 33:49Speaker 02

  to realize during this, you know, not as hot market, that it will come down to the operator. Like, everyone's like, the community, the community. Well, what happens when the community loses 90% of its value? The community turns on the project. And I think, you know, it's up to the operator to re-change that momentum. And so I've been, I've been quiet. You know, I've been quiet because I've been focused, just very, very focused on what I have to do here.

• 34:17David Hoffman?

  In the, in the chat, we got Brian Lowe and also me asking this question. What would you say? What do you have to say for a 20-year-old like me who wants to start his own NFT project? Or perhaps somebody like Bankless or somebody who is in content or media or just like adjacent?

• 34:35Speaker 02

  Create? It's like making an app. Everybody wanted to make an app when apps exploded. Everybody asked me, Gary, what app should I make? I said, one that brings people value. Nothing changes. What should Bankless do? Like, I don't know, like you guys have a real fucking show. I have a funny feeling that people would like to come and see it live. Create an NFT that gives the, you know, access to 12 live appearances in 2023 where there's a party and guests.

• 34:57David Hoffman?

  Think I can get Ryan Sean Adams to leave his house 12 times in 2023? That'll have to be at your house, man. I'll just bring him in somewhere.

• 35:04Speaker 02

  So, you know, I think, I think yes to the 20-year-old. I also would say to the 20-year-old. You know, I worked in my dad's liquor store for 14 years, building it for my dad. And, but I earned my stripes and learned operations. And so, you know, one thing that a 20-year-old should consider is, especially right now, where a lot of people are not hiring as much. They can probably use good, young, aggressive talent. Maybe go get a job at one of the top 100 projects and get paid to learn. Like, I don't understand. People, people are willing to go into massive debt for college to learn something fake. But like, then they're mad at companies when they don't pay them as much as they ideologically think, yet they're learning a ton.

• 35:50Speaker 02

  I'd much rather, if I'm a 20-year-old curious in this space, get paid minimum wage to work for doodles than to go into debt at Wisconsin.

• 35:59David Hoffman?

  Totally agree.

• 36:00Speaker 02

  I mean, fuck.

• 36:01David Hoffman?

  The time to do it is now, too. It's the bear market. It's not during the bull run.

• 36:05Speaker 02

  A hundred, it's always the bear market. That's awesome. I'm so pumped right now. Like, I'm loving this. Like, nobody's like, I'm just trying to like, work and build and make good decisions. I mean, I made a decision for GiftGoat this morning that won't manifest until August of next year. And it's a good one that I really need for that micro community, but like. They're not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna get the benefit of that until August. But that's what it requires. And so you have to have the stomach to deal with like people being patient. So I'm excited like.

• 36:40Ryan Sean Adams?

  You, you mentioned, you mentioned like technology a couple of times and, and I'm curious from your state, as an operator, as a builder in the NFT space, like what still needs to be built out, like what's hard, like, I mean, we're trying to do things around.

• 36:53Speaker 02

  Things that eliminate friction, right? For example, we're gonna have a massive upgrade to our website, like we're going password and email for the people that want to do it. Because, and that's a web two function, but that was like, you can't do that 18 months ago. It had to be all web three. So I think what I call web 2.5, a lot more web 2.5. Strategies I think matter, but there's a, there's a lot of things that quote unquote need to be built. Warm wallets, right? Like, you know, like are starting to broom, like, there's just a lot of cool stuff, like unlimited stuff, like. NFT readers. QR readers are nice now, right? Credit card with chip readers are nice right now. Both those didn't exist 10 years ago in America.

• 37:37Speaker 02

  Europe on the QR, on the chip, right? Like that stuff's way better. And so like, we need more of that, right? We need, we need, like, could you imagine you have an NFT? There's a replicant made that can sit in a hot wallet that doesn't allow somebody to steal your actual NFT. That's validated that you go to Madison Square Garden right there. I'm looking at it. And if you own the common sense cow, you can see the cows, the hottest band in the world perform. I'm making up that the cows are now a hot band, you know, but like, you know, there's so much, so much. And wait to Apple and Facebook and Google, like.

• 38:12Ryan Sean Adams?

  Well, I mean, I don't know. Did you see this, Gary? So it's been in beta previously, but last week it looked like Meta just rolled out. NFT validation for Instagram. So now you can like, and like, that's huge, man. I mean, Instagram is what is 1.5 billion, something absolutely massive in terms of its reach. And they are now supporting NFTs and this is happening during the bear market.

• 38:36Speaker 02

  They're all gonna do it. They're all gonna do it.

• 38:40Speaker 02

  It's, it's, look, the conversation isn't about the underlying tech or the smart strategic operations. It's about speculation of pricing. It's almost like everyone's paying attention to the value of the comic books, not the ability to print, you know, paper. If like, if paper wasn't invented yet. Like, like, you know, the analogy is like, everyone's worried about, you know, the, the, it's why Wall Street fucks me up. Like, everybody worrying about the stock, all my clients at VaynerMedia have worse businesses than they could because they all care about their stock price every 90 days, instead of building a real business.

• 39:21Speaker 02

  And so I think that's my hope, that more operators focus on not, so many, you see this, you guys are paying attention, so many projects are doing such short-term things to appease a small percentage of people in their Discord who are fudding, who aren't, who don't necessarily, aren't necessarily doing the wrong thing. They're worried about their self-interest. They should, they're human beings. But that's a bad job by the operator. Can you imagine every head coach in sports, listening to the crowd and making his or her decisions on the next play based on that?

• 40:00David Hoffman?

  Right. Like steering, steering, it's a tail wagging the dog.

• 40:04Speaker 02

  Hundred percent.

• 40:05David Hoffman?

  And it's only the operator that's gonna have the vision for the long-term. How, how do you, like, corral your community, or just like, get them to see the same vision that you do? Are there, is there a trick to this, or is it just like, straight up being like, raw and authentic?

• 40:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, and just like, limiting. I think I was too involved in the community early on, meaning like, I was like, part of it. I almost forgot it was mine. I was like, we're fucking, you know, I need to be straight. And, you know, I, I think, for example, Jay Edward just said, hand waved away the only semi-technical softball question, G is here to pump a bag. Jay Edward said, like, I'm, I'm really not. I'm like, like, I, because it's not gonna work. I don't think people understand. Like, there is no pumping. Like, there is no pumping in this market. This is why I've been so utterly quiet. I just fuck with you guys and like, I had to go somewhere to talk about the toy drop, right? And I, and I needed somewhere to like allocate some time and talk about what I've been up to

• 41:03Speaker 02

  because I've been quieter, but like, my preference is to stay unbelievably quiet. And I'll tell you why. What's cool about when you're quiet is the real ones who really believe actually support. And then you're pumped when you know you're fucking got it. I know I got it. But to me, like, you think it's gonna matter what the fuck anybody says anywhere? It's not gonna matter. Just like when I fucking sit this weekend at MetLife Stadium and eat my fucking popcorn and talk shit about Teddy Bridgewater. It's not gonna stop Teddy Bridgewater from playing a good football game or a bad football game.

• 41:39Speaker 02

  And so for me, for me, I don't, I'm actually looking to get super duper quiet because there's an incredible feeling of knowing what I'm actually doing and then letting the people that have held all the way through or the people that are coming in when it's least obvious, like you're happy for that. The thing that, only part that hurts me right now is watching people sell when they don't, when, when, like, for no reason. You know, it's one reason, somebody sold recently and I emailed him and said, "I'm happy you sold. I think you need, I get that you need it." And I was happy. But people that are selling out of just like some randomness, thinking that's gonna mean anything, like trying to...

• 42:19Ryan Sean Adams?

  A lot of people just sell because things drop. That's why they sell.

• 42:23Speaker 02

  Somebody emailed me and said, "Gary, I'm emailing you. I'm selling these three to make a point." And I replied and I was like, "To make a point about what?" He's like, "Well, you need to be." I'm like, "I am." And then I reminded that gentleman, I got on the call with him and reminded him that I've been building businesses for 25 years.

• 42:42Speaker 02

  What you want the person operating to do is different than what an operator may want to do.

• 42:49David Hoffman?

  When you say I am, is that instant messenger? Okay.

• 42:55Speaker 02

  A DM, DM.

• 42:56David Hoffman?

  DM, DM, okay, right, okay, they just wanted you to be interacting with them in the community. Do you have a community manager who like fills the void in your absence? Or is it actually?

• 43:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, we have tons of mods, like, but like, but like, I want to do a lot of the speaking, but like Andy, the president, there's plenty of them doing some speaking here and there. Of course, so many others, Daniel, Tyler. But I like doing the speaking, but I'm not so sold like that, you know, you got to find the right balance of speaking. You know, like you want to speak when there's something to speak about. You know, to me, speaking about the Toys R Us Macy's collaboration makes sense. Like it's a significant distribution deal. This is not a direct to consumer thing that we've seen from every other project. Where you have to send your audience to your dot com. This is hundreds of thousands of people in the next 100 days during the holiday season are going to stumble on this,

• 43:50Speaker 02

  these characters, click the QR codes, fall in love, Google, buy it. NFT, like this is real.

• 43:59Ryan Sean Adams?

  Yeah, I, you know, I think the only thing that can be done at some point with all of the skeptics and all of the people who throw fud and shade is just like, outbuild them, right? And show them on the other side. And sometimes that won't even shut them out. But, you know, that's what we're going to do.

• 44:13Speaker 02

  But I like, but I like that. I like the fud.

• 44:16Ryan Sean Adams?

  Yeah. Does it fuel you? Does it make you like more excited to build or does it like, because I know some people who just, they see that negativity and they, it discourages them.

• 44:27Speaker 02

  No, no, no, that's someone who's got to rethink why they're like, what they're doing. Why should that discourage you? These people are entitled to their opinion. It's, it's wonderful, like freedom of thought, you know?

• 44:41David Hoffman?

  Gary, who else is in the crypto world, NFT world, creator world, doing cool stuff that you like? Or what other projects are out there that capture your attention?

• 44:53Speaker 02

  You know, I'm not sure. Like, I'll give you an example. I know more what my mod Crystal does and her incredible talent in my world than I know what my homie Kevin Rose is doing with Moonbirds right now, or like me cheering heavy for World of Women, Women of Weapons, Doodles. Like, there's so many people that I hope are crushing. I'm not in the phase right now where I have a great read of what, you know, you know, the projects are doing. Like, you know, I'm aware that Poob's NFT is ninth on OpenSea right now, because I can look. I can look at ABC, Regna. I can look at all this stuff. I see it. I just, you

• 45:37Speaker 02

  know, I just don't have the time right now. I'm not in collector mode like I was a year ago, so I wanted to know everything about every project. I'm in building VFriends mode for real, for real. And, um, and that's where I'm at.

• 45:55Ryan Sean Adams?

  Gary, this has been a lot of fun, man. Thanks for updating us on so many things. Last question for you, just to kind of round out. We've been talking NFTs, we've been talking NFT, we've been talking VFriends, but zoom out to kind of crypto for a minute, if you will. What's your temperature on like crypto assets these days? You know, like the Bitcoins, the ethers of the world?

• 46:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:15Ryan Sean Adams?

  Cryptocurrency.

• 46:16Speaker 02

  If you look back to 18 months ago, I've never really spoken about currencies. I don't have a good read.

• 46:22Ryan Sean Adams?

  You don't even have a read?

• 46:23Speaker 02

  I really don't. I own those two. I own Solana. I don't know what else I own. And it's not where I feel comfortable, because I understand branding and human behavior and what the creators of a project can do for utility. With currencies themselves, there's a lot of need for it to do something, and I'm sure those things will come. It's just not my passion place. I've never been a financial engineer. It's not what I'm good at. I think the DeFi stuff is super fascinating, but it's a little too math for me in a world where I love the art and the human, meaning I love the math of it. I think it's very fascinating.

• 47:03Ryan Sean Adams?

  You're a community builder at your core.

• 47:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm a storyteller. I like marketing. I like, I know why Nike is worth a trillion. I know why that swoosh matters. I know what I'm doing and what I'm doing. And so I try to stay where I'm comfortable and that I'm much more comfortable in NFT land than I am in cryptocurrency land.

• 47:20Ryan Sean Adams?

  That's cool. Well, thanks for stopping by. And so refresh us again. When can people see V Friends at their local Macy's?

• 47:27Speaker 02

  Uh, mid-October, October 17th, I think, is when they really start supposedly hit the shelves. I'm a retailer, so I know some people will keep in the back until the next week. But, you know, every Macy's that has a Toys R Us inside of it and Macy's.com right now. And, and please, garyvee.com/discord, come and hang. Like, that's where all the alpha, all the links, you don't have to guess around or Google.

• 47:50Ryan Sean Adams?

  Quick question from YouTube. Will the toys be available in the UK?

• 47:53Speaker 02

  Yes. V Friends shop is gonna launch on the 17th, the day they physically hit stores with pre-sale and actually purchase for international. So we're going full international as well.

• 48:04Ryan Sean Adams?

  That's awesome. Gary, thanks for hanging out. And guys, uh, yeah, go, go stick around. We'll include a link to, uh, the V Friends Discord. Take care. Bye, Gary. Our time to remind you, Bankless listeners, of course, risks and disclaimers. None of this has been financial advice. Eth is risky, so is Bitcoin. My God, NFTs are volatile as well. David was not told this. You can definitely lose what you put in, but we're headed west. This is the frontier. It's not for everyone, but we're glad you're with us on the Bankless journey. Last thing, if you are new to Bankless, make sure you like this episode. Make sure you subscribe. If you're listening to this podcast, rate and review on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button. We'll see you later.