Everybody Else Sucks Too.

In this episode of The GaryVee Audio Experience, you're listening to a talk I gave to the Rutgers Football team in 2019 about the biggest thing college athletes and young people are sitting on right now: leverage. I encourage you to stop underestimating what this window in your life is worth and start using it to connect with people. I also discuss patience, playing offense over defense, and why judgment from people who don't know you should never slow you down. You'll learn about: • The Leverage You Have Right Now • Patience And The Long Game • How To Handle Judgment • Flip Life And Small-Dollar Hustle • Building A Brand From Your Soul

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. So, this is just a fun, fun morning for me. Couple things, I'm gonna shoot it a little bit here, give a little context, but the reality is, I wanna take advantage of the fact that we're actually here together, and so, I'll create a little bit of a framework, but I'd love to do as much Q&A as possible, so if anything of stuff you've seen, or context you've had in the past, or anything I touch on here, you know, I think the Q&A part is the most valuable thing. I think, you know, I think about leverage, a lot. And so, the biggest thing that I think about when I'm in this room, especially for all the kids in the room, for 95%, 90% of you, right now, may be the most leverage you ever have.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  And I wanna start there, cuz it's super important to me. When I think about being a college athlete, in a place where the sport is so looked at, you know, the truth is, the percentage of people that are in this room, that go on to the league, and make enough money in the league, to take care of their whole life, is remarkably low. It's just fucking remarkably low. Meanwhile, you know, I keep thinking about this former Louisville safety, that played for the Jets for a couple of years. And I DM'd him a couple times on Twitter, and talked to some of his homies, and I kept saying the same thing, which is, you know, I would hit him up, because I'm a Jets fan, and he would, and his homies would hit me up,

• 1:29Speaker 00

  because they knew what I was doing in entrepreneurship. But we never connected, he never, he never made the time to chop it up. And I remember one time I DM'd him, when it was very clear to me that his career was gonna be short, and I literally just DM'd him and said, "Yo bro, you're fucking up." Because right now, I'm dying to have an hour with you, in a world where people pay $100,000 to have an hour with me, and in a couple of months, you're gonna get cut, and I have no time to fucking even reply to you. Cuz the leverage you have with the logo, right now, is my biggest passion in the world, and the day you don't wear that logo, I don't give a fuck about you. And the reality is, that's exactly what happened, and then he hit me up nine months later, and cuz I'm a good dude, I replied, but with a reply of, "I've got no time for you."

• 2:15Speaker 00

  And that's how I think about this. Not to come harsh or what have you. I just know, because I'm a Jersey boy, and I know the business world and the world, that there's a fuckload of people that are Rutgers alums, that are super interested in you right now, and the second you don't have that big R on your chest, they're not. And how to balance, bless you, and how to balance that with academics, with film work, with practice, with doing what you're doing here, is super interesting to me because it's a fine line. Right? One of the biggest things I hear from a lot of coaches, both, actually, all three levels, high school, professional, and college, is kids, especially with what I talk about and what I want for you, is like, how do we find that balance to let kids

• 3:00Speaker 00

  build their brand on social and marketing? I think everybody in this room knows. You know, the thing that worked out for me, as somebody who loves athletes, is 20 years ago, athletes didn't give a shit about entrepreneurs. Now, the top 100 athletes in the world are DMing me on a consistent basis, so it's crazy to watch entrepreneurship blow up. Even when you guys were kids, even as young as you are, you know that this entrepreneur thing is really just 5, 10 years old, where people really, really fuck with it heavy. And so, you know, to me, finding that balance of how you leverage where you are in your life right now, while staying focused, is the number one thing I come into this morning on. Because the reality is, I want you to leverage it, because I want your life to be happy.

• 3:44Speaker 00

  And for me, I think it starts in a couple places. So the biggest thing that I've observed when I've talked to teams and now speaking to a lot of kids, the top, top for me is, how many people in this room, when they go to class or on campus, are in a place where their headphones in, focused on their shit, given that you have the leverage right now? And the reality is, the kids around you that want to say what's up are gonna have the leverage in a decade. I think about this every day. I think about like, I was, you know, it's funny. When I, when I talk, I always think about, it's funny to have AJ here. By having a brother who's 11 years younger, I kinda got a lot of practice early to like spit wisdom or try to be a mentor. I think about what I would tell AJ if he was... Dramatically more athletic and was sitting in this room.

• 4:29Speaker 00

  And I would say like, "Yo, bro, like, you know, this is just the math around it." Yet, there's 100 people on campus right now who are gonna be the biggest CEOs or players in New York City in 7 years. And right now, they're dying to take a selfie with you, but you have no time, because you might be caught up that you have the leverage right now. And that's the biggest mistake. It's the biggest mistake. I call it the "high school girl rule", right? A lot of people didn't want to talk to certain girls in high school, but 6 years later, they really want to talk to them. But they fucked up the leverage because they were a dick in high school. And I think about that a lot, and I think a lot of you are in that position right now. Please don't underestimate or take for granted. Obviously, if you're in this room, you know, for the far majority of you,

• 5:13Speaker 00

  you had leverage in high school too, from your athletics. And so you're used to that by now, whether it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 years. That leverage is everything in society. It's crazy. I watch it every day. The whole social media thing? Watching the biggest, most famous people in our society only 5 to 7 years ago be slow to Instagram? Because they thought they were fancy and they were celebrities? So they didn't go on, and they made fun of Instagram models, and they made fun of Instagram comedians, and they made fun of people? And now, where that is the currency? And they're not on it? Just watching the most famous people in our society grabbing at straws, hitting me up of like, "How do I do this?" When just 5 years ago, they had all the leverage.

• 5:58Speaker 00

  And now, we forgot who they were, or don't give a shit? It's fascinating. That is where you're at. Right now, for a lot of you, this is the most leverage you will ever have. How you figure out how to use that to connect with people, which are the only leverage in actual life, is probably the biggest thing that I want to get across.

• 6:20Speaker 00

  Think about it so much. Couple other things, coach, without knowing all the rules of how you think about social and what have you, so take it for what it's worth. Communicating and engaging with people is enormous. And again, you know, anytime I go into somebody's living room, I come with massive respect, right? Make sure you take your shoes off, make sure you don't step on shit, like, you know, I think about it. So I come here with a lot of respect, but if you find time to balance your time, you know, I always think about like, instead of that hour on Fortnite or Call of Duty or 2K, if that kid at that university spends 20 minutes replying to people on Twitter who are talking about their school's program in that sport, what that actually means in life?

• 7:05Speaker 00

  I think people are very confused about serendipity and communication. Like literally, just go into Twitter search, or go into Instagram and searching hashtags and putting Rutgers football. Somebody says they're excited for the Iowa game and you say, "Thanks?" It just blows my mind that that is actually your internship, that is actually your career. I think about that every day. I see it every day. And I see it with kids that follow me that don't have leverage the way you have it. That are just doing it randomly, hoping, yet you've got all the leverage, they are actually super interested in what you do right now. So, to me, that, you know, it's funny, I was driving here this morning, I was like, what do I want to get off? What do I want to make sure they know?

• 7:51Speaker 00

  And that's it. Like, you know, I was trying to conjure up like a second, a third, a fourth thing to take up the time, and I'll do that. I'll improv on you right now. But, the number one thing if I leave this morning, that I hope, is for people to realize how much leverage they have, how, just like weight room and film, you've got to put in work to get what you want, and how what social media and the internet have done is given you so much opportunity to take advantage. Of who you engage with around what you want. You know, if you just deployed the leverage you have, and the way you think about sliding into DMs on girls with it,

• 8:32Speaker 00

  if you just deployed that strategy to business and life on social media, the reality is, the far majority of you would get so much more ROI of the number you have on your back right now for the next year to three years. It's crazy and it's real. It's crazy and it's real. Couple other things I want to talk about. I'm real passionate about patience. I think the biggest vulnerability to this room, including the coaches, and us old guys, is patience. I wish the coaches over here knew how young they were. Watching 30, 40, 50-year-olds completely confused by the context of time is one of the most fascinating things I see in our society.

• 9:14Speaker 00

  Like, people always come up to me, and they're like, "Gary, when are you gonna buy the Jets?" And I'm like, "25 years." And they get sad as fuck. Like, they think, they like, want me to have it tomorrow. And I'm like, "I just don't build wealth like that. I'm just like, one brick at a time. I'm not gambling out here, or hoping, or dreaming." I already fucked up by passing on Uber twice in the angel round. That would've made me my billion. So, I missed that shot. So, the reality is, is that I'm just building blocks. And so, you know, whether you deploy this, what I'm talking about right now, to like, how you're thinking about cracking the starting lineup, or why you're pissed you're on special teams, but you should be starting, or whatever bullshit excuses you come up with in your own head,

• 9:55Speaker 00

  the reality is, patience as an overlay is remarkably important. It's remarkably important. Like, you're gonna be done with school, you're gonna be a professional, whether in the league, or CFL, or XFL, or whatever your major is, or your passion is, or entrepreneurship. You're gonna be done here, do whatever I just said for 10 more years, and then be 32 and young as fuck. And the reality is, you have no concept of that now because you can't because the way time works in our brains. I remember when I got out of school, I couldn't wait in Springfield, New Jersey, not far from here either, to work in the wine store and blow it up like I said I was going to, and I did. And I remember walking in, my cousin worked, you know, this is family business.

• 10:40Speaker 00

  My cousin, my dad's first cousin worked there, but the way that our grandparents were, he was closer in age to me than my dad, or in between actually. He was 30 and I was 22, and I remember that first month working with him every day. And I was like, this guy's old as fuck.

• 10:56Speaker 00

  And he was 30. And I'm 43 right now, thinking about how you're thinking about my age versus yours, and I feel young as fuck. Right? And I think about that, I'm like, how the hell do I communicate that to kids? That you're gonna live, like, I'm double the age of the majority of you? Double. You're gonna live an entire nother fucking life and still have your whole life in front of you. Yet, everybody's impatient as fuck. Shortcuts. It's what kills everybody. It just does. Shortcuts? Because you decided in your own head, focus group of one, that you deserve something. I think about that a lot. And I think about that in athletics a lot, and I see it commonly.

• 11:39Speaker 00

  People start cutting corners, getting themselves into trouble by not putting in the work or doing dumb shit, or whatever the fuck it is. Because for, listen, four of your friends in your dorm or from back home gassing you up of what's supposed to be happening versus what's happening is the biggest mistake everybody makes. And the amount of heads that just shook their head makes me feel excited that I hit that point. Four or five people in your family or friends or from back home or who you're in the quad with, gassing you up of the way it should be versus the way it is, is the biggest vulnerability athletes have, entrepreneurs have, business people have. I just see it, our parents see it every day.

• 12:16Speaker 00

  Results speak. And the reality is, coaches have that subjective call. You might be right. They just might like a skill set from somebody else a little bit more in the way it works on the overall, or who knows? Or maybe most likely, which I see a ton, they just don't like the way you're handling it. Hey everybody, I hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. 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.

• 12:45Speaker 00

  So, to me, I would rip both my arms and legs off to be as fortunate as you are to be at this age, during the internet's maturity at this age. I'd probably own the Jets by now if I was lucky enough to have the internet around at this age. The remarkable nature of that machine, and everybody's shitting on it now for hate and all the fucked up things that people think, social media isn't changing us, social media is exposing us. It's not Instagram's fault, it's not Twitter's fault, you're angry or you hate, it's your fault. These platforms are exposing us. And so, I really highly recommend you figure out your relationship with these powerful platforms, because regardless of what anybody's opinions are of them,

• 13:29Speaker 00

  they will be the currency of our society for a very long time. You figuring out how to use it? Let me give you a couple of things about social that might matter for somebody who's out there and is getting judged, because one thing I have so much respect for you guys is regardless of how great you are, you've got multiple moments of people booing you at scale. Right? Like, one thing I love about athletes is if they get to the right place mentally, they're in a place where they're always ready to get booed. I genuinely think the reason I'm super successful is because I got booed my whole life. I was an immigrant, couldn't speak English, got booed.

• 14:09Speaker 00

  I was a fucking terrible student, a couple miles away from here, got booed, right? I was small as fuck and not good enough at sports, got booed. I got booed at everything which made me a great entrepreneur because I'm ready to get booed. I love being booed, I love L's. The reason I love the Jets and Knicks so much is they haven't won shit. I grew up a huge Yankees and Rangers fan, as soon as they won a title, I was out, I'm about to climb. I love losses, I love pain. I'm serious, I love it. And so, I think, once you figure out how to mentally embrace taking an L, but real quick on that front, on social, I watch so many kids that I'm looking at, watching them progress, have a terrible game, throw four picks, delete their shit. Delete it.

• 14:52Speaker 00

  Hit me up on DM, I'm gonna, Gary Vee, I'm gonna detox off Insta. I know we've been talking, but like, off this game last week, I'm done. I'm coming back in October, and I always think about that shit. And we all have to figure out our relationship with technology. But here's how I take it from my purview. I think people get too high when they get cheered. I think the reason people struggle when people shit on them in comments is because they're taking other people's opinions way too serious. The best way to be able to help take care of and deal with people shitting on you is not getting too high when they're giving you accolades. When I watch videos like that, when people give... Right now, I'm in that place where I get so much love, I don't hear them.

• 15:37Speaker 00

  I really don't. I understand, I appreciate it, feels humbling as fuck, you know, but I don't hear them. I still think, "I suck, I'm grinding, I'm in the process, it's early." Which is why when people shit on me, and they do,

• 15:52Speaker 00

  a lot, because when you're out there like that, that's just how it is, I can't hear them either. And so, one thing I would consider is actually using social media's negativity and judgment as an ability to actually absorb it. Create a framework where you can actually accept both pros and cons at scale, instead of running away from it. Every time I see somebody shutting down and deleting, I get nervous because I don't see it as a detox for 99% of the people I talk to. I see it running away from judgment. And judgment is the only thing I promise you that you'll have for the rest of your life, and that you have had. So, I'm offense. You know, this might be too old school of a

• 16:35Speaker 00

  of a sports reference, but some of the coaches might remember this. Back in the day, there was a really famous basketball college team, Loyola Marymount, that had Hank Gathers, who unfortunately passed away during a game. It was real crazy in the culture back in 89. But every time I think about that team, it's how I think about my life and how I think about myself as an entrepreneur. They were winning college basketball games like 147 to 132. They were just run and shoot, they were just...

• 17:02Speaker 00

  They just pushed it. Their games were crazy, and that's how I think about life. I think too many people are playing defense. I think too many people are trying to win like the 94 Knicks, like 79 to 76. And I'm out here trying to win 149 to 146. Offense. Because once you stop hearing judgment, and you're not actually worried about what people have to say, you can just go fast. You start doing shit. Do you know how many of you, right now in this room, have a real passion for some shit that isn't cool right now? And so you're just not doing it? Yet, it's exactly the right thing? The amount of friends I had, back in the day, that loved video games, but got off of it because they didn't see a career for it, or even at one time, believe it or not, video games was dorky shit,

• 17:47Speaker 00

  who now regret at 40, because they were fucking great at it, and they could be the Tony Hawk of esports, right now. They could have been that OG, but they just didn't see it, because they worried about judgment, and they didn't realize the world evolved. That gets me to my final point, and then we can get into real specific questions. Whatever your pa- you know, the biggest eye-opener for AJ going into the football business, like, as hardcore fans as we've been, as how close we've been to teams and owners, the owner of Miami Dolphins is my business partner, like, as close as I've been to it, now that I'm really, really in it, I just can't believe how many of you don't fully love the game. It's just your ticket. It's just your pro- it's amazing. I don't throw that as judgment, I think that's fucking fresh.

• 18:31Speaker 00

  Like, it makes sense to me. Like, I love it so much, and I so wish I could, right? That I was naive and did what I always make fun of people, like Focus Group A1. It has been eye-opening to how many people actually don't love it. They were just blessed. See, I got real, real, real lucky. The luckiest shit on earth is the thing you love is the thing that you're best at. And I think that's me. Like, when I was 6, I wanted to wash people's cars. When it snowed and we had snow days here, I was shoveling snow, not making snowmen. Right? Like, like, literally, I don't know how many of you follow me, but if you see what I'm doing in garage sale in, around here in Jersey, like, I'm not doing that for show, I fucking love it. Like, I'd rather wake up on Saturday, at 6:00 in the morning,

• 19:15Speaker 00

  and drive to fucking, you know, Matutian's Townwide Garage Sale, and buy some shit for a dollar, and sell it for 11 bucks on eBay? That fucking gives me way bigger of a high than fucking almost anything besides watching a Jets game. That is literally probably my favorite thing, except a Sunday in the fall. And so, that gets me to my final point. If you're sitting here right now and you're real, real fucking passionate about something that doesn't have to do with the four walls we're in right now, you need to lean into that shit. Because that's the thing the internet's doing. The amount of people that can make a real living around having a podcast or a vlog, or flipping shit they love, versus getting a job they fucking hate, and they can make as much or around the same much around having a fucking podcast around Fortnite,

• 20:00Speaker 00

  versus going and working in finance because they interned this summer in Wall Street, and they think that's where the money is? That shit, I know nobody here believes, but I've been saying it for a decade and I'm watching it every day, and it's real. And so I highly recommend, like I'm really hopeful, like honestly, when I come, just to put into context, including the left side here, when I come to these rooms, honestly, I'm real realistic, I'm just hoping to penetrate one head, one dome. I'm aware that like I'll come in, it'll be good talk, it'll be cool, you know, you have some friends that think I'm cool, you think I'm cool, it's great, I'm hoping, but on God, I'm hoping to get through one person's head on some of these things, because I know I see shit that other people don't, that's been my calling card. And so, I hope you've been really listening, I really do.

• 20:45Speaker 00

  And I hope we can like add on to like, like right now, what I'm trying to set up for the coaches too, like, I'm trying to set up context, I'd love to like, by the way, if you have context on me, like, what to invest in next, how do I grow my following? I want to create, what I'm doing on this little rant is permission and safety for you to ask your actual question that's running through your head, because I think the Q and A part, at least three or four times I've done this, has always been the part that really has brought the most value, and I want to bring value, so... Damn it, suck that bad?

• 21:16Speaker 00

  I get it, I'm kidding. So yeah, thank you for having me, I really appreciate it.

• 21:28Speaker 00

  I left a lot of time for Q&A. Like, the 3 or 4 times I've done this with teams, pro and college, like, I just get so many DMs after, like, "I wish I asked this, I wish I asked this." So I wanted to leave a little more time. I got off what I want, so let's go with it. 3-2. What's your name, man?

• 21:42Speaker 01

  Ronnie Agudiz. Question. You said that we should take advantage of leverage and stuff, and use social media, but what do you say to someone who's, like, low-key, doesn't like putting their business out there, doesn't like having everything out there just for everybody else to see? Like, what do you say to people like that?

• 21:57Speaker 00

  So check me, right? Like, I'm putting out 100 pieces of content a day, right? Like, I'm really at the tippy-top right now, and there's not a fucking photo of my family or kids on the internet. Like, I don't share more than half my life. What I would say is, "You control it." That's what's great about social versus the media. Star Ledger's gonna say what the fuck they want. You control none of that. You control your social. Now, you might not want to show anything, and I'm cool with that, too. But you're your PR agent on that platform. Now, don't confuse that with being full of shit on it, because people will sniff that out. Everybody's faking it to the make. I mean, people are doing all sorts of crazy shit on Instagram. Like, jumping fences at private... Private plane places' biggest problem right now

• 22:42Speaker 00

  is people jumping fences to take a photo acting like they took a private flight.

• 22:48Speaker 00

  So, that shit's never gonna work, because everybody will... You saw Bow Wow get exposed. Like, people get exposed. Don't go there. But, but, the good news is, if you're introverted and quiet, it's cool. Like, first of all, you don't have to do it at all. Let's just start right there. Just because there's an opportunity doesn't mean you gotta do something. There's an opportunity to make a fuckload of money going to garage sales in New Jersey every Saturday. Doesn't mean you have to, but it's real big. And my big thing is, like, especially, like, if I left here and then, like, AJ hit me up in October and said, "Hey, man, you've lit a real flame." I'm like, "What do you mean?" He's like, "Man, half the football team is replying to everybody on Twitter about Rutgers football." That would be amazing, because that would really work. Just thank you.

• 23:31Speaker 00

  You know, a lot of people can't think of what to say, a lot of times. Just thank you. "Thanks for supporting us." Appreciate it, you know? So, you're in control. Don't do some shit because I said so. It's all self-awareness. However, you're in control, right? So if you don't want people to know your business, nobody wants that. That's the beauty of being able to control it. You control your part. You can't control somebody taking a picture when you're out. That's just the world we live in. But you can control what you have to say and what picture you want to paint. But make sure it's truth.

• 24:04Speaker 02

  You said you've been booed and failed tons of times in your life.

• 24:06Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 24:07Speaker 02

  But one of your biggest failures is how you decided to overcome it.

• 24:10Speaker 00

  You know, my failures are funny because I'm an immigrant, so I've always got net... I never do shit that's like gonna put me totally out of business. I always got a nest egg. I'm always on like 3 and 1/2 baits. Like, I'm never doing something that's like over the edge and if this fucks up, it's like... You know? My biggest mistakes have been the things I haven't done. I referenced it real quick. If you go read my first book in 2008, Crush It... 2008. I thanked my family and one random person, Travis Kalanick, who went on to start Uber. Who used to... When me and AJ started VaynerMedia, he used to fly around like in Vegas and shit and just hang out with us because he had no job. He was in between. Starts Uber. I'm investing like crazy on everything. He asked me to invest in Uber twice and I said no. Because I just bought an apartment. I was a little less liquid. I thought it was a side project for him.

• 24:56Speaker 00

  I also thought Uber was like a rich man's game. Like, it was originally like a limo on your phone. So I was like, you know, how big is that gonna be? And I passed twice. We got in a little bit later. You know, so we did alright. But... But I mean, I le... I mean, if I wrote my normal $50,000, $25,000 check, I probably left in the ballpark of 300 to 800 million on the table.

• 25:19Speaker 00

  So that's an L.

• 25:23Speaker 00

  And on some real shit, like... I don't even feel it because what I've started to really learn about myself in the last year or so is I'm about the process, not the trophies.

• 25:34Speaker 00

  I'm just about the process. I love my game. I love my game so much. I wanna win. I'd like to have that W. But, uh...

• 25:45Speaker 00

  Money's funny, right? Like, anybody who doesn't have it thinks it's the key to happiness and they're super confused. And then they say, "Well, easy for you to say you have it." And I was like, "Yo, I didn't have it for a long ass time." I lived in the villas in Springfield Avenue in Springfield in a shit fucking apartment until I was 28, buying nothing, making 40, 50 thousand a year, working fucking 90 hours a week in a liquor store. So, I've tasted both. So, I made a lot of mistakes. I pass on all sorts of shit. I just don't know what the mistakes are because I say no so much because I'm so fucking busy. What if that one meeting was, you know?

• 26:22Speaker 00

  Make a lot of mistakes. My man.

• 26:24Speaker 03

  Tyler, hey.

• 26:26Speaker 00

  Tyler.

• 26:26Speaker 03

  I want to know what's a better advice you can give for pitching to investors?

• 26:30Speaker 00

  So, when pitching to investors Tyler, the biggest mistake all the kids are making now is they're pandering to the VC. So, the whole deck is made with like, you know what it is if you're asking me this question? Every number you're gonna pitch me, you're making up. Right? You have some finance kid, or parents, or you looked up on the internet of how to project numbers. It's all projections. And people sniff out bullshit. So, my advice is go in real as fuck and be like, "Yo, I really want to make this company." I have no idea. I can give you, here, here's a slide that says in year one, we'll lose a million, year two, we'll lose 5 million, year three, you know? But like, shooting it straight with investors, I think really, really, really is a countermove right now because in my game, in the investment world, like, people are just full of shit. Everybody thinks they're a founder.

• 27:15Speaker 00

  The biggest reason I stopped investing in the last three years and do it like once or twice a year is back in 06, when I, the first three, the first three companies I invested in were Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. That was easy for me because I believed in social media and the kids were actually founders. Because they were nerds, like, straight nerds. Like, real nerd shit. Now, it flipped. Now, the coolest thing you can be is a fucking founder. Now, an entrepreneur sits with a rapper and an athlete. So, now, everybody is one. Because entrepreneurship is hidden. You know what's amazing about sports and rap? It's not hidden. You could tell me you're the best, but the fucking merit of the game is gonna spit it out.

• 27:59Speaker 00

  You could tell me you fucking got the best fucking flow, and you can spit it, but the market's gonna decide on SoundCloud and Spotify. Entrepreneurship, people are hiding. Like, "Yo, I'm a founder." They put that shit in their Instagram, "CEO", and they're not doing jack shit. You could be an entrepreneur. Being a successful entrepreneur takes time to weed out. So, real, direct honesty. Real, direct honesty. Like, "I don't know in a pitch", or "I'm not sure", is the number-one thing. Because I take meetings just to stay fresh, just to do favors, and I laugh when I ask questions that I know the answer to, and they try to front, and I'm like, "Game over."

• 28:45Speaker 00

  My man. What's your name?

• 28:48Speaker 03

  CJ.

• 28:48Speaker 00

  CJ.

• 28:49Speaker 03

  I have a question for beginners who are trying to invest. I'm trying to start thinking about where you're going.

• 28:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:59Speaker 00

  Give me a starting point. Because the biggest reason I got into the garage sale flipping thing is so many people are like, "Yo, Gary, I want to make more money." And what they're really saying is, "How do I make as much money as fast as possible?" That's what people really say. Like, "Yo, I got a thousand, but I need four thousand." "I got ten thousand, I want a hundred thousand." And they want it quicker. Because like, for example, if you've got any money and you want to be an investor, go buy Facebook and Amazon and Netflix stock. Because the next five, seven, nine years, they'll be better. There you go. But nobody wants to buy something at 200 bucks a share, and in five years, it's 300 a share. But it's guaranteed. It's better than putting it on red or black. On the flip side,

• 29:43Speaker 00

  the quickest way I know how to make money from like a small base, under 10,000 bucks, like 100 bucks, is FlipLife. FlipLife, bro. Do you understand that if you went to the fucking Walmart or Target close by and just scanned shit on your eBay app and Amazon app, you could find Arbitrage, something that's on the clearance aisle at Target at 25 bucks that sells on eBay for 60 bucks? But you know what everybody says, "But what about the fuel? What about the eBay costs? What about the work for me how to ship it?" And I always reply, "Yeah, work." Better than working at fucking White Castle. For 6 bucks an hour? So, on some real shit too. Flipping is crazy.

• 30:28Speaker 00

  Like going to Goodwill and buying a jersey for 2 bucks and 70 cents and selling it for 19 or 25 on Facebook Marketplace or eBay or Postmark, you know, flipping. I'm fucking pushing it hard because it's real. And the best part is, like, when I look at this, like, you just have to be willing to... See, my biggest advantage is I'm dirty.

• 30:49Speaker 00

  I'm dirty. I don't give a fuck what people think. Do you know how many people, when I put out these garage sale videos? My homies in Silicon Valley, in Hollywood, in Wall Street, like, players are DMing me shit. Like, half of them are like, "This is the best shit I've ever seen." But half of them are like, "Yo, you're making yourself look stupid." I'm like, "To who?"

• 31:09Speaker 00

  "To you? Fuck you."

• 31:12Speaker 00

  I'm serious. "To what?" "You're judging me? You're a fucking idiot." "I think it's stupid that you're golfing for 9 hours." "AJ, I know you love golf, my son." So, like, you know, like, I don't want to golf.

• 31:24Speaker 00

  Fuck you, Malibu Don, you're surfing. I can't surf. Fuck that shit, it's stupid. I don't want to waste 4 hours trying to surf.

• 31:34Speaker 00

  I want to go to somebody's fucking garage, like I did a couple months ago, and buy a bunch of Olympic pins for 20 bucks and flip them on eBay for 4,000.

• 31:44Speaker 00

  I bet a bunch of people here only got 20 bucks be pumped as fuck to turn it into 4,000. On some hours that you wasted playing 2K. And listening to The Baby's album 10 times.

• 32:02Speaker 00

  I fucking love that guy.

• 32:05Speaker 00

  But the best part about music is you can listen to fucking The Baby's fucking mixtape while you list that shit on eBay. You know how much dumb time you guys waste? Professional athletes in college, busy as shit? Fuck you, you got time. You know you got time. Fucking chasing skirts and playing video games. Put in work!

• 32:27Speaker 03

  How do you start building a brand, branding yourself?

• 32:30Speaker 00

  That's a great question. My biggest thing, and like, if you, like, what, how many people here follow me on Instagram? A little bit. So I really appreciate it. So, you may know this, I don't know if you've noticed, but in the last 6 months to a year, I've been showing the old clips from 10 years ago when I was a little more chubby, had a little more hair, little blacker hair. And I'm doing that to show people, "Bro, I've been doing this every day for a fucking decade, and only now I'm popping." So how do you do it? Put out content of everything, this is, if you start looking, I'm laying out the blueprint for you here right now. How do you do it? The best way to build a brand when you're a fucking remarkable athlete that got to play fucking D1 football, is to talk about your love for drama. Is to talk about the fact that you love ice cream. Is the fact that you like, you're really interested in wine.

• 33:14Speaker 00

  Or really, really good at old-school Nintendo. Or really understand fucking southside Atlanta rap and here's your opinion on who's next. That's what I'm doing. For the people that have been following me, because I really know a lot about hip-hop. Like, I'm bringing Gunna and Meg Thee Stallion, all these people before they blow, and then everyone's like, "Why's that old white dude always know what's happening?" Mike Boyd, he's got his ear to the street, that's my guy. But like, besides that, so like, I think the best way to build your brand is to put shit out on the internet. Facebook, Twitter, start a vlog. You know, there's a kid at the University of Texas, Colin Johnson, I see having a vlog as a receiver. You know, just see what he's like, put a vlog. But you gotta do what's good for you. Maybe 2 or 3 of you start a podcast.

• 33:59Speaker 00

  Just record that shit on your phone, post it, like, you gotta make. You gotta do. You know, it's fun to talk to athletes, because a lot of my analogy in business class is like, "You can't read about push-ups."

• 34:09Speaker 00

  You can fucking watch film all day. Until you put the work on the field, that's the game. And that's how I think about building your brand. You can come up with strategies, you can read all my books, you can watch all my videos, but until you start putting out videos and pictures and written words on all these platforms, you're doing nothing. What I'm trying to do is give you permission to talk about the shit that's really in your soul, not what you're supposed to be talking about. Give me a 300-pound offensive lineman in college football, starting to make content about opera, that fucking kid's gonna blow up.

• 34:44Speaker 00

  Because it's not what you expect. So, the thing you're most into, or the thing that you know the most about, putting out those posts, you can't imagine how much upside there is about that.

• 34:57Speaker 00

  My man.

• 35:00Speaker 00

  I'm sorry, my man. One more time? No, he's good, he's good.

• 35:04Speaker 03

  I wanted to know, how did you get yourself to the roadblocks?

• 35:07Speaker 00

  I just don't give a fuck about what anybody thinks about me, because they don't know who the fuck I am inside.

• 35:13Speaker 00

  Like, how can I value your opinion about me, if you don't know me? Like, my mom knows me the best in the world, she's my hero, and she doesn't know everything about me. It's real easy to not let judgment come in, when you have empathy for the other person, and know they're just seeing a clip of you, or just one moment of time. They don't know you. Everybody's slow, because they value other people's opinions. I just have no time for that. Mainly on some weird shit. You know when it really, I mean, I was always that way? But where I went to 100, was when all these famous people started dying, and we gave a fuck on Twitter for like a day, and then we don't give a fuck no more. Lot less people talking about my man Nipsey now. It's only been a couple months. And they're just fucked with me. I'm like, "Man,

• 35:57Speaker 00

  I'm trying to do all these things." Like, we're just human beings. Like, my grandma passed a couple weeks ago. And like, buried her in Woodbridge, and like, I don't know, it's not on my mind that much today. That's just life. So, it got real easy for me, to like navigate, because I'm like, "What? I'm really gonna value somebody else's opinion about me, when they don't know? I got one life." Do you know how, my friends, do you know how rare it is to have a life? The odds, right now, currently, that science accepts for the odds of actually being alive, is 400 trillion to 1.

• 36:31Speaker 04

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• 36:46Speaker 05

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• 37:17Speaker 00

  There's no shit you'll ever do in your life That is more ridiculous than the fact that you even have one And people out here crying about what they don't have Or what's fucked up with society or what they can't or what Just complaining And the biggest thing bro Nobody gives a fuck Like it sucks you know both my grandfathers spent the One of my grandfathers spent almost actually spent 10 years in jail And one spent a couple months both for just being Jewish in Russia

• 37:53Speaker 00

  You know and like the reality of like my parents growing up in the Soviet Union I realized like Nobody gives a fuck right like doesn't mean there isn't racism sexism suppression It's just that what like we're just in control of our shit and that's how I think I'm in control of my shit And I don't give a fuck what you think and I just go And so getting through Roblox is easy It's you know there's this crazy how many people seen Rocky IV The one with Drago Real quick just raise your hands real quick I'm just curious for the reference okay Rocky IV for the couple of you that didn't raise your hand Rocky's fighting the Russian dude He goes to Russia he beats him right At the end of it there's a scene that nobody ever talks about I've Googled this shit

• 38:36Speaker 00

  But for me I can't stop thinking about it 25 30 years later At the end Drago loses and he grabs the mic And this is when the Cold War was going down like Russian America hated each other It's like terrorism now for America right like real like shit At the end he grabs the mic after he took an L and he goes fuck all of you basically He goes I'm in the ring for me This is my L not Russia's L to America mine And that's how I think about this shit I'm not worried about your judgment when I lose that's my L I don't care about your opinions of my L

• 39:11Speaker 00

  I would've been a real good quarterback. Like, next play. Like, I just don't care. It doesn't matter. I'll throw nine picks and still fucking win the game if you let me stay in. You know? Like, that's how I think. That's how I think as a human, that's how I think as an entrepreneur. You know? It's just like, I always think about like the things in the mental makeup that I had that would've made me really good at sitting here. It's like, "Next fucking play, what? People booing, what? Coach is gonna yell at me on Tuesday on film? I don't have time for that right now, I gotta fucking next play." That's life. Nobody cares that your fucking mother was fucked up. Nobody cares where you came, like, nobody cares. Like, of course people care, but they can't do shit about it.

• 39:53Speaker 00

  You don't like it, move. Go to Sweden.

• 40:02Speaker 00

  I don't know that reference, but I'm glad I hit it. Go ahead. Got it.

• 40:09Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 40:16Speaker 00

  You know, you know, what's really, thanks for sitting in, guys. What's super devastating about when I hit Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr is I had very little, I had money. This is a good story, this might help you guys. So I wasn't making that much money in my twenties at the liquor store, I was pouring it all back into building Wine Library. So, but, even though I was making like 60,000, 55,000, 63,000, I was saving. I was living like I was making 30.

• 40:42Speaker 00

  And that's why I had a little nest egg when I saw my moment and I struck. That's where everybody fucks up. Everybody lives 25 to 100% more than they have. That credit card fucking game.

• 40:56Speaker 00

  All, by the way, back to the last question. Cause they wanna buy the new Supremes to flex on Instagram for people that they actually don't even fucking like. It's the most fucked up framework. Keeping Up With The Joneses is fucking broken. People buying chains they can't afford to look, I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy. So I was fucking saving. So my comfort level was every dollar I had on some shit I believed in. I wasn't an investor when I invested in those 3 things. I was just taking opportunity. Later, when I became an investor and had more money, I got dumb. I started losing because my level of comfort was greater, right? I was being looser. You know, like when you go to the casino, you win a little something, you got a little house money, you get stupid.

• 41:40Speaker 00

  You change what got you there. And so, that's what happened there. I would say your level of comfort has to be it going to zero because 99% of companies fail. Whatever you are super thrilled to go and have disappear off the face of the earth, that's your number.

• 41:59Speaker 00

  Especially when you don't have a fuckload. Even when you have a fuckload. That's how I bet now. I'm rich now. But I still bet when I write that check, I'm like, "Zero."

• 42:12Speaker 00

  That's why I've never had a crazy failure. Because a lot of people write a check, I'm like, "Okay, but this is gonna get me to my million." Or my Maserati. And then they hope. This is the worst fucking strategy of all time.

• 42:27Speaker 00

  You like that one? I like that one too. My man.

• 42:31Speaker 02

  I'm Mike Tavertal. And when you were growing your business, we talked about how you really worked all the time.

• 42:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:37Speaker 02

  When you hit roadblocks and did you have any self doubts? And if you did, how did you respond to that?

• 42:43Speaker 00

  You know, I don't want to bullshit you, I really didn't. I was on a fucking mission. Like, I didn't care, you know, like, all my friends when I got into my 30s started getting some press. Shit started happening, everyone's like, "Yo, you're..." You know, I grew up when there was like, no internet. So like, high school friends from North Hunter High School in Hunter County started reaching out to me, saying like, "Yo, you're so lucky, you're this." I'm like, "Motherfucker, I'm not lucky." I'm like, "You remember fucking 1999? When you went to the Jersey Shore and banged chicks? I fucking worked."

• 43:10Speaker 00

  So like, I was just in my fucking cocoon, bro. Like, for real. You know? Like, just in it. And so like,

• 43:18Speaker 00

  I'm trying to get back to the point that I was talking with my man. Like, roadblocks are self-imposed based on judgment from other people.

• 43:28Speaker 00

  Think about, you know what, this is a perfect analogy. Think about how many times you guys get banged up on plays during games, that so many people would take themselves out and not play at all. Oh, I fucking hate it. That, you know, when you get banged, like, football's crazy. You guys are getting banged up on every fucking play. And think about the tolerance. You guys know, you guys all know everything. You know the kid in this room who gets chipped up a little bit and is out. And you know the person that's on this team right now that'll break their fucking back and play.

• 44:00Speaker 00

  But for normal people like me, I'm like, every play would get me out. That's how I was as an entrepreneur. The shit that I think people think of Roblox. Do you know what it feels like to be 26 years old? Have people that you went to high school with come to your liquor store, look you dead in the face as they pulled up in their BMW, and say, "Oh, you work for your dad?" And then you ring them up on their case of champagne that they're gonna use for their party, and you bring it out to their car and put it in their trunk, and they look you in the face with pity? I lived that life. And the way I took that scene was, "I'll see you in 10 years, motherfucker."

• 44:40Speaker 00

  That's how.

• 44:42Speaker 03

  I'm Ron Cassidy, I just have a quick question. I know you have a pretty amazing background. And let me, just to get to where you are now, what were your core values over the course of that time? And then you can talk about any-

• 44:52Speaker 00

  No, that was one, clearly. I've established that.

• 44:58Speaker 03

  Would you say like you went back-

• 44:59Speaker 00

  Yeah. Gratitude. On that 400 trillion of one thing, I'm grateful. Straight up. Like, I don't know what to say. Like, you might have not been born, right? Like, your dad could have been late to the apartment that day. On some real shit. Like, I don't think people contextualize perspective, like, what? Like, you were alive. You could have been a tree. You could have, like, right? This is cool, like, life is good. Like, it's cool to have one. That's number one. Being the big... One of the biggest things for me is being the bigger person. I hate conflict. Ironically, like, I'm a tough guy when I have the mic and nobody else can talk, but in real life, I like, like happiness and, like, vibes and like, so... Like, I've eaten shit my whole life.

• 45:43Speaker 00

  Like, kids stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from me in the liquor store. Like, like, literally, like, I found a way for him not to go to jail for a long time. Like, you know, like, just being the bigger person has been a core principle of mine. Not valuing money over family and, like, happiness has been huge fuck money. Like, really. You can, you can not care about money more when you don't care about what people think about your money.

• 46:09Speaker 00

  You know? Like, you know, so, um, being the big...

• 46:15Speaker 00

  Do patience. Like, I've talked a lot of shit and I'm sure a lot of people are like, gonna walk away not giving a fuck, or flip life, or what have you, like, if you leave with anything, if, if I had my choice, it would be, "Holy shit, I'm gonna live four more full lives." And no matter how crazy what I think about right now is, and like, what I want to accomplish on or off the field, like, I got four fucking lives to do it. Like... You guys know Grey Goose? The guy who invented that as an entrepreneur invented it at 78.

• 46:49Speaker 00

  Sidney Frank, 78 years old. You know? Life is like sports, like... One of the great moments of my life with AJ is the Monday Night Miracle at the Meadowlands with the Jets-Dolphins. That shit was 30 to 7 in the fourth quarter. And they won, they came all the way back. My cousin left, went home to Queens, went to sleep. I called him when they tied it at 30 and said, "Can you believe this shit?" He's already sleeping. He left that game and was already sleeping in Queens. And I was like, "What are you talking about?", hung up. And then the Dolphins fucking scored and made it 37-30. And we fucking blamed Bobby for waking up. But like, that's life. Like, you could do everything wrong.

• 47:33Speaker 00

  Have every dream you've ever had get fucked up. Blame it on other people, the girl fucked it up, that injury fucked it up, coach fucked it up. Blame everybody, have everything go wrong, be 57 years old, and still have fucking 40 years to make it right.

• 47:51Speaker 00

  Honestly, if there was some crazy new drug that I could inject in you that gave you perspective of time, you guys too, that's the drug I would give you, straight up. It makes you optimistic. People are sitting here dwelling already.

• 48:09Speaker 00

  Dwelling already. Fuck, I shouldn't have come to Rutgers, fucking knew it.

• 48:15Speaker 00

  Of course there's people thinking that. Like, that's just real life. Dwelling already, haven't even fucking started.

• 48:25Speaker 00

  Man, that's what I want to change. My man.

• 48:32Speaker 00

  I don't love real estate. AJ loves real estate. Like, real estate, my opinion doesn't mean shit. Real estate has proven itself over the last 200 years to be a wise, long-term investment. I just don't get my nut off on it.

• 48:45Speaker 00

  Like, I don't like it that much. But I would easily tell you that that's wrong. It just doesn't make me happy. But if you like it, it's a great thing to lean into. But it's about patience. You might come out of school and the market may collapse. Because it's circles, you know?

• 49:05Speaker 03

  You know how everybody, I guess, to be like, I guess, people like you are like speakers in the world. It's like, what makes you different? How do you know that you wouldn't be different from everybody else?

• 49:19Speaker 00

  I think because I didn't start talking until I was 34 and actually accomplished something. So I wasn't talking in theory. I only talk about shit I've done, which made me very confident, and I only speak about things I'm doing. I think the reason I feel confident is two reasons. One, I watched so much Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor and Chris Rock growing up that somehow I embraced an entertainment style of when I talk that works. And number two, I stay in my lane. I only talk about shit I know. I watched so many speakers talk in theory, talk from an academic standpoint. Like, they read shit, I do shit, and then I talk about it. Like, I'll tell you everything about TikTok right now because I do it. So, entertainment and not fronting.

• 50:09Speaker 00

  My man.

• 50:16Speaker 00

  Right this second. The question is, when do I feel like I had the most leverage? Prior to now? Yesterday? You know? Like, this is my leverage point, right? Like, I was one of the first 100 people to have a million followers on Twitter, but it was 2007 and the world hadn't been on social media yet. So when I repeated it over the last year or two on Instagram,

• 50:42Speaker 00

  right? Right now, you know. That Instagram blue check, that following count, that's currency, that's leverage. So, right now. And my plan, my man, is to make, the way I just answered you that question, that same answer until the day I fucking die. Right now, yesterday. Right now, yesterday. But I'm a marathon runner. That kid, by the way, that came to my dad's liquor store at 26 and flexed on me? Losing.

• 51:12Speaker 00

  Life is a marathon, everybody out here is trying to sprint.

• 51:19Speaker 00

  D-Rock, that's a good Instagram post, let's get that.

• 51:23Speaker 00

  My man. I wouldn't say I'm an unmotivated person, but I don't think I have quite a single passion I can talk about. So what would your advice be on finding something like that? What's your name? Billy. Billy. I think it's a game of tasting. Like, the biggest thing I want for everybody in this room is to taste shit. Like, do random shit. Go skateboard, go cook, go try flip life. Go fucking, go fucking put out a fucking song. Like, I don't fucking know, like, taste shit. Like, in your twenties, you gotta taste.

• 51:55Speaker 00

  You know, and that's the biggest mistake that people, you know, like, make. They're trying to like, figure out... Everybody's got so much pressure to like, have it figured out when they come out of school. Like, it's time to be real and real life and all that shit, it's fucking stupid. 22 to 30 should be experimenting, fucking travel, if you... Like, and people are like, "Why don't I have money?" I'm like, "You can still travel." You can get a bullshit fucking plane ticket, you can take a bus, like, do shit. So, I think you're not gonna find what you fucking like... Like, it's like food. I'm always fascinated by oysters. The amount of people that think they hate oysters, even though they've never had one, I see so many people living life that way. You don't know your passion because you haven't done shit, Billy.

• 52:36Speaker 00

  How much shit have you actually done yet? Not much, my man. So like, you gotta go try shit. Hey everybody, if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and uh, thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.