5 Lessons to Learn While You Hustle this Weekend

In this episode of The GaryVee Audio Experience, I sit down on the Hustle Like You're Broke podcast to talk about building businesses by helping others and paying attention to human behavior. I share what watching restaurant operations taught me and how making expertise more approachable can create opportunities through content. I also discuss practical optimism and why I would rather build something great than tear other people down. You'll learn about: Helping Others And Building Businesses Observing People And Restaurant Operations Making Expertise More Approachable Creating Opportunities Through Content Choosing Practical Optimism Over Fear

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Most people have bought in to the cynical, negative pushers of society. That as we sit here today, I genuinely believe we are living in the single greatest moment of opportunity for human beings ever. And what people didn't understand was humans are inherently nosey. Humans are curious about other humans. And so what's interesting is that opened up an extraordinary amount of opportunity. When I started making those wine videos, four months after YouTube came out. No one knew what YouTube was, you know, the wine critics in New York Times, they were shitting on me. And then they weren't because millions of people were watching it. And I was just talking to people like a human being. And that is now available for every person listening. If you're someone in a field of expertise or knowledge,

• 0:45Speaker 00

  and you feel it's stuffy or misunderstood, you can just start making videos and be a human being and wake up in a year and have a book deal, a speaking career, like a podcast. This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience.

• 1:00Speaker 01

  I know this is your podcast and thank you for having us on here. But if it's okay, and I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks. Can I set the table? No pun intended.

• 1:08Speaker 02

  But this is, this is, um, this is.

• 1:09Speaker 00

  The answer was no.

• 1:10Speaker 02

  The answer is, what are you trying to set it with?

• 1:14Speaker 01

  One of my, one of my biggest mantras in life is, is life is about relationships. And I just want to start off by saying how grateful and thankful I am for both of yours. On a, on a professional and even a personal level, you've always supported me from day one. You've been in my corner. You've both mentored me through some challenging times.

• 1:31Speaker 02

  Well, I just want to say thank you both.

• 1:33Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:33Speaker 02

  Honestly, because I've known you both separately. And then when I heard about the merger, I said, how in the hell did these two connect? Because both of you have a very unique energy, very unique energy.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  Great word, by the way.

• 1:51Speaker 02

  And, and no, no, no, because you're both so engaging. And when you're, when you're around you, you both are locked, freaking locked in, man, with very hard nowadays because people are so distracted. Because you had so much going on, you got the phone, the technology and things are disposable, conversations are disposable, people are disposable, relationships are disposable, but you two lock in. And that's one thing I've always respected from Gary from day one, being around you and like your, your vision to see things, specing in technology and other, ahead of the, ahead of time. But even going back to Gene Wolfson, buying wine before he was even into all of these things.

• 2:29Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 2:29Speaker 01

  So do you want the answer to that question, by the way? We can both answer that question on the count of three, I think. Right? Name it, name them on three, the why we are together. Ready? One, two, three. David Roddletz, AKA Roddy, brought us together and we started the VCR group.

• 2:43Speaker 02

  Cause you, you say, um, you invest in people.

• 2:48Speaker 00

  A hundred percent.

• 2:49Speaker 02

  What did you see in Josh that made you go, he'd be a good partner?

• 2:53Speaker 00

  That K-Pon's giving Roddy flowers, but the truth is, you know, I knew Josh outside of Robbie, Roddy for a long time. Like I went to Lore all the time. We always had positive interactions. To your point, as someone who's very high energy and likes people, you know, it's like animals, right? You know your own. So from day one, when I met K-Pon, you know, I'm like, oh, this is, this is an energy and a type of personality that I understand, which is unabashedly loud and their way, right? And like, I have that, but the intent comes from such a good place. And I also, you know, I, when we first met, I worked in a liquor store, which I turned into a wine e-commerce business, but I grew up in retail.

• 3:38Speaker 00

  I was in a liquor store my entire childhood, watching customers, watching people. And when I, what in, in my twenties and thirties, when I started going to New York City restaurants for business, for life, it was so funny, I would watch the entire restaurant operate. It would be as enjoyable for me to be at a restaurant and enjoy the restaurant like a normal human as it was for me to watch literally every employee from the waiter to the waitress. Like, I just liked the operations. The hospitality industry and the retail industry have a lot of similarities. And what was interesting about Josh is he was doing both, which is what I think I do a lot, which was, he was entertaining and making people feel warm and all the stuff that people liked. And some people feel is too much.

• 4:22Speaker 00

  Like we, we both get that. But I was watching, he was like, looking at small details, like from the first time I went to Lore. Long before I went with Lair, long before you even knew, like, long before you knew me, I knew you and I was watching. And first of all, he's the chef and he's on the floor. Next, oh, he, now I know why he's on the floor. People love this guy. Oh, wait, he's like worried that that person didn't put the drink on a napkin. He's also operational. Oh, this guy's interesting.

• 4:51Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  We knew each other for a long time, like he said, but Roddy and I, uh, Roddy was knocking on my door. Uh, he was unhappy on Saturday, fighting his current group. Uh, and he was knocking on my door and I was kind of at the same point. And the joke is that I was 90% there. He had me on the goal line, goal line. And then, then he finally called me, he called me and he's like, I got Gary Vee now, you in? I'm like, in. It was like the push, push. I'm like, oh, you got Gary Vee? I'm in.

• 5:20Speaker 03

  So we all know how successful and how great Flyfish is, but you have your first restaurant in your home state.

• 5:26Speaker 01

  Jersey, baby. 12, 12 minutes away, Cape One Shop House, Hackensack, New Jersey. I get emotional every time I walk in, when I drive by to have your name up in lights on, on a mall that I grew up going to. And now we got Cape One's Burgers, six minutes down the road at Burger Town Center. I had a moment the other day, we were about to open the doors at, at Burgers and Tiny Dancer came on the radio. And I just sat down and the sun hit me and I thought about my dad and I just started bawling.

• 5:51Speaker 00

  And then Elton John walked in and ordered a burger.

• 5:56Speaker 03

  In Las Vegas, that might happen.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  A word you use all the time is just gratitude. And I just felt like this over, like just over sense of gratitude. One of my workers walked by, she goes, chef, are you okay? I'm like, I'm so okay. And it just feels really good to have a team around you to support you that's willing to put your name up there. When I say it all the time, it's my name up there, but it's on the heels of so many other people's hard work.

• 6:16Speaker 00

  These two gentlemen that I knew separately, David and, and Josh, they were during COVID, having these walks, saying, this, the world's going to open up eventually. You know, we've had our runs with our prior restaurant groups, but we're not fully fulfilled. To, to his point about his emotion and Tiny Dancer, when, for everybody who's listening, who's trying to take the next step, if you want great things to happen for you, the fastest way, let alone the easiest way, is to actually do great things for others. And so for me, every time I walk into one of our restaurants, last night included, seeing Roddy on fire versus going to places that he had as a friend and seeing that he was, mm, you know?

• 6:58Speaker 00

  He was working, not on fire, right? You know, you two know this. The difference, hustle is good when you're on fire. Hustle is devastating when you're working super hard just to get through something.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  Just to maintain.

• 7:11Speaker 00

  Uh huh. Again, you really, you guys really know him. This is a totally different human being. This guy, the last five years before COVID was well, well, all the time, fucking Debbie Downer over here.

• 7:23Speaker 03

  And by the way, rightfully, rightfully so, but you know what?

• 7:28Speaker 01

  But he's back, baby.

• 7:31Speaker 00

  Mike, right?

• 7:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, you were. He had, he had a run and then he hit a lull. And that's why I was excited when this came about. Cause you know, I remember being in the Hamptons of the pop-up or something. I went to dinner, you were there.

• 7:44Speaker 00

  Yes, yes, early on.

• 7:45Speaker 02

  And, and that was, I think you guys were talking about this.

• 7:49Speaker 00

  And then once it happened. We did a pop-up because we weren't ready to have anything real.

• 7:56Speaker 02

  And now you 100% right. You're a completely different.

• 8:00Speaker 00

  Completely.

• 8:01Speaker 01

  I am the best version of myself that I've ever been because I've surrounded my people with, I'm surrounded by people that believe in me and support me. Surround yourself by good people, good things happen. Take the leap of faith, trust your gut. Don't settle for mediocrity. Don't, don't, don't wallow in the mud. Don't live life in the rearview mirror.

• 8:18Speaker 00

  The thing I'm most proud of in my life, and I've done a lot of things, is I've been one of the most consistent human beings as a public figure for the last decade, constantly pushing positivity, practical, love, good stuff, never getting caught up and have never put out, what, do you know what's happening with every influencer, politician, boss, person? There's a really good saying, there's two ways to build the biggest building in town. One, tear down everybody else's building and your little building is tall. Or two, have the fucking chops to just build the biggest building. And right now, everyone's playing number one and I'm proud as a person that's playing number two.

• 8:56Speaker 03

  I would say this group's definitely number two.

• 8:59Speaker 01

  And speaking of having a partner who plays number two.

• 9:01Speaker 02

  What's your con?

• 9:02Speaker 01

  My con for today or in general?

• 9:04Speaker 02

  In general. Throw it out there.

• 9:05Speaker 03

  Me today, cause in general.

• 9:07Speaker 01

  Listen, I don't want to engage in the conversation because there's better things to talk about. I just, I just struggle with the world that we live in. Currently, I just think there's a lot of hate out there. There's a lot of, there's a lot of noise and I just think we were put on this earth for, for better stuff, for better reasons. I think we live in a beautiful world. We shall be grateful for everything we have. We should all live together in harmony and it's really tough, especially with kids to, to just every day. We have some friends that are really engaged in it. Like it's just, it's a lot. And I, I always say to my restaurants, true, like, I can only control what goes on the four walls of my restaurants and that'll always be a wonderful environment. But I think it's, it's challenging out there and scary, to be honest with you.

• 9:42Speaker 03

  But it goes back to what Gary was saying earlier, that there's always been conflict. There's always been something and.

• 9:47Speaker 02

  It does seem now, respectful of Gary, says it seems, seems now that it's getting a little.

• 9:50Speaker 00

  Let me tell you, let me tell you about the night. But real quick, I actually want you to hear this. It, you're right. In your lifetime, it feels more. Here's a beautiful thing about human beings. Their collective capacity to stay on tilt on hate fades. Individual conflicts exist, race, religion for damn sure. We all know this, but I will tell you the tensions are high. But if you, for example, what I do for a living, which is really at the end of the day, my marketing firm has been successful because all I pay attention to is human behavior. It's already, it's already getting better. And yet people don't see it because to your point, if you're locked into the moment

• 10:31Speaker 00

  of something you're emotional about, whether pro or con, you can't see anything else. I'll give you an example. From one to four PM, I am so locked into the Jets Packers game. The whole world could implode around me. It wouldn't matter. And obviously that game imploded on me in the last 10 minutes. I'm still very angry about it, but.

• 10:49Speaker 01

  You gotta watch the video of him at the Tennessee game. He's absolutely in heaven. And then you watch the video of him at the Packers game. He's just sitting there like.

• 10:56Speaker 00

  That was a tough one. But I, but I, you said it perfectly. Your friends that right now are very engaged.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:01Speaker 00

  And when you get into the vortex of, of dark versus the vortex of light, but there's unbelievable amounts of love and good going on. People just struggle. Here's the biggest issue.

• 11:12Speaker 02

  You get so close to the tree, you don't see you're in the forest.

• 11:15Speaker 00

  That's right. You got it.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  Documentary you guys just made about September 11th. I mean, it was absolutely beautiful, but at the same time, what that was based on is one of the worst things of all time.

• 11:25Speaker 02

  But, but you also saw, saw after that happened, the love and humanity that came out of it.

• 11:31Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 11:31Speaker 03

  This wasn't on our cards, but I'm sitting here thinking just, you are just one of the most brilliant people I've ever met, and I would die to be on one of your group chats. Have you ever thought about running for president?

• 11:41Speaker 00

  I have, I swear to God, I have. Big problem. I was not born in the United States of America. So I was born in the Soviet Union. I immigrated here when I was three years old.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  And not eligible?

• 11:51Speaker 00

  So I'm not eligible.

• 11:52Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 11:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:53Speaker 03

  Can we make that change? Can we, can we change the constitution?

• 11:56Speaker 00

  Con, I was, I was president of Martin Luther King Elementary School in Edison, New Jersey in fifth grade. My slogan was vote Gary V for victory. It was, I won because I gave everyone lollipops.

• 12:11Speaker 01

  Smart, smart.

• 12:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, listen, you gotta know your audience.

• 12:15Speaker 00

  But you know what's funny? It does draw me like I, I basically think the world is very simple. You're either selling fear or you're selling practical optimism. And I believe so heavily in practical optimism. I know a lot of people hear me, even in this podcast, when I talked about AI in the world, I know people are like, this motherfucker's delusional, right? Because I know the mindset they're locked into. But practical optimism is the only historic truth of society. People have been talking about us finishing, like when people are like, oh, AI. I'm like, motherfucker, there are atomic bombs. Like we act, there have been atomic bombs for 70 years. We underestimate the human spirit. We get caught up in the moment. There's contentious times, you know, people are like, this is the worst it's ever been.

• 13:00Speaker 00

  I'm like, the black plague was pretty fucked up. Like, you know, like there's, there's been other times of conflict, of unrest. There've been world wars.

• 13:08Speaker 01

  But I think the problem now is with social media and the access to all the information so quickly and whether it's true or not.

• 13:14Speaker 02

  Access to the information or the disinformation.

• 13:16Speaker 01

  Yes. Well, that's.

• 13:17Speaker 00

  But friends, but friends, there was no social media when fascism tore through Europe.

• 13:24Speaker 02

  That's true.

• 13:25Speaker 00

  Like, like we, we say that now there's all this information. Here's what the alternative was. There was limited information controlled by few, and it worked out for us in America for a while, but historically it has not been a good mechanism. Now, we've been affected by, cause we grew up, our age group grew up in unprecedented times of peace.

• 13:48Speaker 02

  Agreed.

• 13:49Speaker 03

  We did.

• 13:49Speaker 00

  We just did, and we should knock on wood and be so goddamn grateful. So yes, I'm aware, I'm aware that for us, if you're of an age, it's like, damn, you know, we've had this run that felt so wonderful. Look, this is adversity. This is when strong people stand up. And by the way, the reason a lot of us are folding like cheap chairs is because there was so much prosperity for the last 40 years. And there's just a bunch of pussies running around who are soft and can't deal with emotional, financial and other, and so we got toddled. Shit was too good. Now we got punched in the mouth. And now my question is, who the fuck are you going to be? Are you going to cry about it? Or are you going to step up and adjust to the adversity? Hey everybody, I hope you're enjoying the podcast right now.

• 14:34Speaker 00

  Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. It'll make my mom super happy.

• 14:42Speaker 03

  But you know, we usually start every episode off with the pro and con, since they wouldn't give us that name for the podcast, but because we all are friends and there's so much to get into, we sort of skip that part.

• 14:53Speaker 01

  Let's go.

• 14:53Speaker 03

  So I'm going to, but, and there's a reason because what you said at the beginning of our podcast today, that was my pro, which is you're my pro because you saw in him what we've all seen, and you were the person with Roddy and with Chef Connor to say, I believe enough that I'm going to help mobilize and we're going to create this empire together. Because he was not, he was a shell of who he is today.

• 15:17Speaker 00

  A hundred percent.

• 15:17Speaker 03

  And the reason why we would all go to his restaurants was for him. I didn't go for the food. I was like, oh, you're not going to be there? I'm going to another restaurant tonight.

• 15:26Speaker 02

  No, the food was great. Restaurant and you went because of you. And then when, when you weren't there, the energy wasn't the same, but knowing you and knowing what you were going through, it's tough to go and put on that face. And so that's your, that's your pro?

• 15:41Speaker 03

  That's my pro.

• 15:42Speaker 02

  All right, I would do my, can I do my pro right now? My pro is this five scoop freaking chocolate milkshake.

• 15:49Speaker 00

  Chocolate always works.

• 15:50Speaker 02

  I really want to finish, but I don't want to do that slurping at the end. And for all of everybody.

• 15:57Speaker 00

  You're a big guy, bro. You're a big guy.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  I'm just telling you, lactose intolerant.

• 16:01Speaker 02

  No, I'm good.

• 16:04Speaker 02

  But you know, this is my pro with this five in the burgers you bought earlier that we had.

• 16:09Speaker 01

  You get that? You get the pro?

• 16:09Speaker 02

  Those are the pro.

• 16:10Speaker 03

  There you go. You can use that.

• 16:11Speaker 01

  That's magic.

• 16:12Speaker 02

  So what do you feel is the pro right now?

• 16:14Speaker 01

  Listen, obviously, obviously right now, living in the moment, just being here with you guys and Gary by my side, it, it's amazing. It's, it's accumulation of a lot of, of many years of hard work, of, of relationships. And I take every one of them seriously and, and it's just, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's very, it's very rewarding and very meaningful to be sitting here right now with you guys.

• 16:34Speaker 00

  There it is.

• 16:35Speaker 03

  There it is. I have to shout out Jordan Bajant and Peter Raskin though. Because if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have met you.

• 16:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, the best.

• 16:41Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 16:44Speaker 00

  Am I allowed to go macro on my pro?

• 16:45Speaker 01

  You can go, go.

• 16:46Speaker 02

  Go, it's yours.

• 16:47Speaker 00

  I got a really interesting pro.

• 16:49Speaker 02

  It's yours.

• 16:49Speaker 00

  My pro is at a time where I believe unfortunately, most people have bought in to the cynical, negative pushers of society. That as we sit here today, I genuinely believe we are living in the single greatest moment of opportunity for human beings ever.

• 17:10Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 17:10Speaker 00

  And let me explain.

• 17:11Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 17:12Speaker 00

  Of course I am not delusional or naive to the news cycles, the, the conflicts in the world. I try to remind people there have always been conflicts in the world. You may be focused on this war or this issue. There was always, there always is. For example, people have decided currently to see the negative in what AI is. I'm going to lose my job or even crazier, a robot's going to kill me. Right? Meanwhile, AI in the last six months is figuring out math problems that are solving medical issues in our world that, do you understand what AI is about to do for modern medicine?

• 17:54Speaker 00

  You may hate AI because you're like, we're on technology too much, but when it saves your daughter's life, you're going to love AI. And so between AI, between what's happening on social, we were talking with some of your buddies right before we came on, there are millions of people right now making money, talking about gardening, talking about shopping, talking about hair coloring, talking about being a barber, all of which 20 years ago would have had to work in a factory. The opportunity for the people that choose to see the opportunity has never been greater. And I'm very pro society and human beings at a time where we're in a lull of people's opinion on that. And I'm thrilled to debate anybody in detail about it.

• 18:36Speaker 02

  Ooh, I sound like I dropped the challenge, the gauntlet out there. But you're, speaking of which, you, you just said people make a million of dollars shopping and doing things. And one of the young gentlemen here who's, who, um, who's like here and watching in the other room, he and his wife, well, his wife is doing it first and he, he does it now. They eat on the internet. They just eat.

• 18:59Speaker 03

  What do you mean they eat on the internet?

• 19:00Speaker 02

  He's showing himself eating crab legs and that there are 13 million views.

• 19:05Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 19:05Speaker 03

  Wait, like they just shoot a video of them eating?

• 19:08Speaker 00

  Khan, don't act like you don't know what's going on in the world. There's eight trillion pieces of big food content that people eating every day.

• 19:15Speaker 02

  Point is usually an angle.

• 19:17Speaker 03

  I don't like, I know who the friend is. He's talking about it. I'm like 13 million views.

• 19:22Speaker 02

  Is that Gary?

• 19:28Speaker 02

  He can't hear it in there. He doesn't know. But there's something for everybody. I mean, and that's the thing now.

• 19:34Speaker 00

  In 2007, when I was making content that Twitter was going to be big. I just invested in this company called Twitter. I really believe in it. I think everyone's gonna.

• 19:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:43Speaker 00

  I got, I mean, I got completely shit on. People like, this was the argument in 2007. Hey, everybody, I like this thing Twitter. What does it do? Well, you just write out on your phone what you're doing.

• 19:54Speaker 03

  And 140 characters.

• 19:56Speaker 00

  Literally, every 100% of the people that I talked to at that time were like, that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. Who cares if you're eating crab legs?

• 20:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:04Speaker 00

  Who cares if you're watching the Giants game? Who cares if you're walking the dog? And my response 20 years ago was everyone. And what people didn't understand was humans are inherently nosey.

• 20:18Speaker 00

  Humans are inherently.

• 20:20Speaker 03

  Glad it's crab. It's looking through the window, right?

• 20:23Speaker 00

  Humans are incredibly curious. Human, uh, why do we have traffic? When the car is on the side of the road.

• 20:29Speaker 03

  Rubberneckers.

• 20:29Speaker 00

  Why are we, right? Like, what are we doing?

• 20:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 20:32Speaker 00

  Like, why did reality TV work?

• 20:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:34Speaker 00

  Even though it's not pure reality, humans are curious about other humans, often from a place, unfortunately, of envy. Right? Often from a place of inspiration, just, and just general curiosity. You know, my favorite, women watching women around what they're wearing is like one of the coolest things, like analyzing the clothes. Oh, that's cool. Like, this is what humans do. And so what's interesting is that opened up an extraordinary amount of opportunity because what we all grew up with us for on this podcast. What we grew up on of what was defined as entertainment or of interest was controlled by very few outlets.

• 21:10Speaker 02

  But my question, I'm looking at all this and you see the things you've got to have in your future. How do you decide what's the next move as partners?

• 21:18Speaker 01

  Very, very thoughtfully, very collectively. We are getting a ton of opportunities now. We have real proof of concept. Uh, we have, uh, I think we operate at a very high level. We are getting a ton of opportunities and very carefully and very selectively deciding we can't say yes to everything.

• 21:33Speaker 00

  Appreciate this, you know, back to my public, you know, energy and just even personal energy. Josh will tell you this, in the group chat, I'm the one that's like, slow down, slow down, slow down.

• 21:43Speaker 03

  I could see that.

• 21:44Speaker 00

  You know, because I'm an operator, right? And I'm sure that's why you understand it like, and honestly, kudos. I mean, you know, we've talked about Roddy a lot, Chef Connor, Cape On and Connor from a culinary, you know, and back to Chef Cape On right here. Like people will talk about it, like I, I almost jumped in and I'm now doing it. Everyone knows this is a one of one personality and a one of one golden heart. This guy can fucking cook.

• 22:09Speaker 02

  One on one face too.

• 22:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 22:11Speaker 01

  Face for radio.

• 22:12Speaker 00

  You know, but like, but like you guys know this, this man could cook and then.

• 22:16Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 22:16Speaker 00

  Connor, from an innovation standpoint, from an execution standpoint, like I am, I am impressed and surprised. I want to give these flowers to the three of them, how much we've done in five years. A hair uncomfortable for me, as they know with Cape On Shop House, I wanted it, I wanted to wait even more time. Look, I got lucky because we had a move and I got my.

• 22:39Speaker 02

  The biggest challenge?

• 22:40Speaker 01

  It feels, first of all, it feels very good to be able to say no to really good opportunities because you can, because you have better opportunities.

• 22:45Speaker 00

  Challenges crippled by.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  I think five, five years ago, I was struggling with, with living in the past, not being able to concentrate on the present and couldn't even think about the future. There was a time where I wanted to be able to look into a crystal ball and know where I'd be five years from now. And now I'm just like, I can look back.

• 23:03Speaker 03

  Seen that.

• 23:03Speaker 01

  I, it's just, it's, I could pinch myself. I mean, it's amazing what we built, the brands we built, the places that we have, the people around this. You know, a couple of questions, you know, you, you did give us a little briefing was, was when did this really all start? And it was early in COVID when we were talking about this and Roddy was just trying to, you know, put all his pieces together. And Gary came over with his now wife, Mona and Roddy and his wife, Yana. We had dinner in my backyard in the freezing snow with the heat lamps and everything. Cause nobody's allowed inside.

• 23:32Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 23:33Speaker 01

  And I made this beautiful dinner and I was just talking about like how miserable I am and I needed, and Gary looks at me, goes, so what do you want to do about it?

• 23:44Speaker 01

  I'll never forget. And my wife Lori, who you guys know and love, who's my rock, she kicked me so hard under the table. She looked at me like, just stop talking. Like he said it, what do you want to do about it? Are you want to do this or not? I go, I'm in. And, and from that point on, two weeks later, at Valentine's Day, we had brunch at Roddy's house and we, we signed, sealed and delivered VCR group. And it was done after that. Another question you were going to ask was.

• 24:09Speaker 00

  Can I jump in if?

• 24:10Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 24:10Speaker 00

  Real, just important, because this is real life and, and important because I really care about the audience listening. Let me tell you what was going on with this brilliant man. I remember that moment like yesterday, it's fear. He was in the same thing for a while, even though this was better. This is what's happening to millions of people right now. They know what they're in and they don't like it. They see something, this could be a relationship, this could be an opportunity. They can clearly see this is better. But they are so scared of the unknown. They are so comfortable in what they've been in, even though it sucks, it's a comfort. But at its core, when you melt it all down, it's just fear.

• 24:49Speaker 04

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• 25:15Speaker 01

  It's fear, but you also have to, hold on, it's fear, but you also have to acknowledge, you know, at 48 years old with a wife and kids and a mortgage, all that kind of stuff. Like, like financially I was doing okay.

• 25:24Speaker 00

  You just defined fucking fear.

• 25:26Speaker 01

  Yes, but, but, but you have to be able to.

• 25:28Speaker 00

  You just gave the definition of fear. No shit, dick. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying you are scared with responsibilities that a new thing might not work out, even though you know the thing you're in is garbage.

• 25:40Speaker 01

  I was engaged before I got married and I, I stepped away from that too, because I'm like, this is just not right. So you, but, but it took, it took balls after being in a relationship for a long time and spending all your money on a ring to be like, you know what?

• 25:51Speaker 00

  No, that's super impressive.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take my chances.

• 25:57Speaker 00

  That is impressive.

• 25:58Speaker 03

  No, but you're a thousand percent right.

• 26:01Speaker 00

  But you can be.

• 26:01Speaker 02

  A lot of people go through it.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  A lot of people go through it.

• 26:04Speaker 01

  And then you get divorced and kids and then you're fucked.

• 26:08Speaker 03

  But you're confirming what he's saying because you know what? You think I'm comfortable sitting here right now?

• 26:13Speaker 00

  You should be.

• 26:14Speaker 03

  I'm comfortably uncomfortable.

• 26:15Speaker 02

  She's very uncomfortable.

• 26:17Speaker 00

  I get it. She thinks of herself behind the scenes. And I remember the first time I met her, I walked out.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  He wouldn't be here without you.

• 26:24Speaker 00

  I literally said to read.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  He'd be coaching junior high school.

• 26:27Speaker 00

  I walked out, I'm like, I said to read, I'm like, she should be more known.

• 26:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, he won't. She won't. She wouldn't do it.

• 26:33Speaker 03

  Here we are.

• 26:34Speaker 02

  Finally, she's getting off, she's getting off of that. But we got, we got, um, we, we got, we got a few more minutes here.

• 26:39Speaker 01

  Well, I got one more, answer one more question.

• 26:41Speaker 02

  The one thing I want to know though.

• 26:42Speaker 03

  Asking you questions and you're just making them up and answering.

• 26:45Speaker 02

  Do want to get answered though, very quickly.

• 26:47Speaker 03

  But Ryan has a harder.

• 26:48Speaker 02

  We see the success and we, you know, people always see success. I guess my biggest, what, what is the biggest challenge for you guys? Because you are still building a business. What is the biggest challenge?

• 27:00Speaker 00

  The two biggest challenges when things are going well, and this is going to really hit for y'all, is what you can't see. What I can't answer right now, right? Like, I think back to like, in my career, like when I realized I wasn't candorous with people I loved. And I'm, I'm a lover boy when I build my businesses. Like the second someone's an employee, I'm like, all right, we're fit. Like, you know?

• 27:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:20Speaker 00

  Like, I didn't see it for a long time. So the real challenge, the real answer is the thing we can't see. The thing that we can see that's a challenge, at least from my perspective, from my perch, is we're so crippled by opportunities. He's right. Like every real estate developer, like we are getting bombarded right now because what's interesting about us is it's ops and food and magic.

• 27:40Speaker 03

  Right.

• 27:40Speaker 00

  We have ops down, like people are like, oh, wait, these people.

• 27:43Speaker 03

  And marketing.

• 27:44Speaker 00

  Correct. Like we've got, we've got a lot of elements and, and we are just getting bombarded by developers in Aspen, in Dallas, in Chicago. And like, like LA, like people are like, a lot of people now really have seen us do this for five years. And so I, I think we're crippled by opportunity, making the right decisions.

• 28:03Speaker 01

  And to that.

• 28:04Speaker 00

  And then executing on it when we say yes is work.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  And to that point, I think personnel and staffing and, and just finding good people.

• 28:12Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  That, that believe in what we're building and just want to show up and put in the work and just work together as a team. I think, I think that's one of the biggest challenges.

• 28:19Speaker 03

  This is a fitting one for you both. You broke the internet. What did you go viral for?

• 28:23Speaker 00

  Mine was, we referenced it, uh, about 140 episodes in, you got to remember, this is 2007 YouTube, nobody's on it. And I had a video where I went to King's Shopping, King's supermarket in Short Hills, New Jersey, and bought all this weird stuff. Cassis, thyme, all these spices, Captain Crunch cereal, and I brought it back. And after 140 episodes of me just tasting wine, what I did in this episode was I tasted all these random things. Telling people, you're never going to pick out gooseberry if you've never had a gooseberry. How can you pick up on melon if you've never had melon? And then I ended it with eating dirt. It went completely viral on the internet and it led to me being on Conan O'Brien, Ella DeGeneres, and the Today Show in a one month period.

• 29:07Speaker 00

  And so in a nanosecond, like everything had changed for me. Let me go back to my origin story with content. When I started making those wine videos, four months after YouTube came out. No one knew what YouTube was and I'm making 20 minute wine videos of me drinking wine. And I'm silly silly on it.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  And eating dirt at the same time.

• 29:26Speaker 00

  You know, yeah, I was doing all, I was, I was eating dirt because I was trying to teach people. Like if you're not going to be able to smell, you know, terroir or dirt or barnyard in a red burgundy, unless you've ever put dirt in your mouth or at least smelt dirt heavily.

• 29:39Speaker 02

  So you're literally eating dirt.

• 29:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's how I got on Conan in 2007. No, it was just fucking, I went Jersey, New York, Springfield, New Jersey, went outside in the parking lot, grabbed dirt, put it in a bucket, went on.

• 29:48Speaker 02

  Don't go to the middle, man.

• 29:52Speaker 03

  That's bones.

• 29:53Speaker 00

  And so, and so the first year, the entire wine world was like the establishment, Sommeliers in the City, you know, the wine critics, the New York Times, they were shitting on me. And then they weren't because millions of people were watching it. And what I, what I understood, because I was in it, was gen pop. And like, I remember when you first were getting into wine, back to like where we met the first, first time, like wine's intimidating, it's complicated, you feel like you have to know something. And I was just talking to people like a human being. I'm like, this smells like Big League Chew. And people are like, oh, that I understand. I don't know what the fuck Casse is, but I know what Big League Chew is. And that mattered and that changed the paradigm. And that is now available for every person listening.

• 30:37Speaker 00

  If you're someone in a field of expertise or knowledge and you feel it's stuffy or misunderstood, you can just start making videos and be a human being and wake up in a year and have a totally, a book deal, a speaking career, like a podcast.

• 30:50Speaker 02

  But I gotta tell you though, but I will say it's not for everybody. Everybody can't do what you do. Everybody can't do what you do. Because when you come to the table, there's a certain energy when you walk into your restaurant. But if, I would say, most people aren't comfortable with that.

• 31:04Speaker 00

  Cause it's not authentic to them.

• 31:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's not authentic. And I think you two have this, this, this authenticity about you. And that's what people, you can't hide that.

• 31:12Speaker 01

  I think a chef, a chef traditionally is a back of the house. Yeah, no one sees you. Chefs want to be in the back through Bobby Flay and guys like Emerald, like broke that mold a little bit. And my, my, my floor is the dining room. Like that's really where I shine now. I have the support from the team behind me to make sure everything's coming out consistently and timely and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, my, my superpower is definitely on the floor, engaging with the people.

• 31:32Speaker 03

  But it's authenticity. This was a highlight. Thank you both.

• 31:35Speaker 00

  Thank you so much. This is amazing. Thank you so much.

• 31:38Speaker 02

  You know what? It's fun to have friends when, who, who guys you know for a while, be able to come in here and talk and just

• 31:42Speaker 03

  And bring food.

• 31:43Speaker 02

  Be yourself and most of all, you bring food, you brought the best food. And I'm very, I'm, you know what? I, I'm proud of you guys and I'm, I love, I love that you guys have teamed up because I'm, I'm just very fond of both of you as individuals and have you together is like

• 32:00Speaker 00

  It's very kind.

• 32:00Speaker 02

  Fills me with joy because nothing I want more and that we want more is to see people that we care about win. And you guys are winning and you're bringing people with you.

• 32:09Speaker 03

  Yeah. Shout out to Roddy.

• 32:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, so shout out to you.

• 32:12Speaker 01

  Listen, Connor, for sure. Similar to you, you won a Super Bowl. You probably thought that was the greatest thing that's ever happened in your life. But look, look at the second chapter. Look at the second chapter and it's like you're between, Good Morning America, between everything that you're doing now. Like I'm, I'm incredibly proud of my second chapter. Cause for a while I didn't know if I had it in me. After a 20 year run with, with, with a company to, to reestablish myself and surround myself by people. I'm, I'm blown away and I'm grateful.

• 32:39Speaker 00

  And what about chapter three, right?

• 32:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, we got more in us, baby. You're young bucks.

• 32:43Speaker 01

  We're just getting warmed up.

• 32:44Speaker 00

  Everybody, if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of the

• 32:55Speaker 05

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• 33:17Speaker 00

  Journey, see you later.