Predicting Live Streaming and Live Shopping in 2008

In this episode of the GaryVee Audio Experience, I react to a series of clips of my 2008 self predicting live streaming and live shopping. I break down why live shopping right now is exactly what social media was in 2007. I also share why everyone who makes a product must be live shopping every day, why salesmen who sucked at social have a good chance at crushing live shopping, and the difference between a social media influencer and a live shopping host. I also discuss the gold rush of personal brand and the long tail where even the 900,000th best live shopping host wins. You'll learn about: • The 2008 Live Shopping (QVC) Prediction • How Live Streaming Builds Community • Live Shopping Vs. Being An Influencer • The Gold Rush Of Personal Brand

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hey Gary Vee Audio Experience listeners, Team Gary here. Gary has a way of predicting the future and in this special episode Gary himself and the team are revisiting a few of those predictions. 16 plus years later, these are scary accurate. Gary breaks down why timing is everything, how building community is so important and he shares his insights on live shopping and the massive opportunity it is bringing to people. So get ready to learn a lot. As Gary says, this is just the beginning. Enjoy.

• 0:26Speaker 01

  This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience.

• 0:31Speaker 00

  So the first video is you talking about live, uh, your live streaming prediction. So we'll play it and you'll watch it and if you're going, we'll let you do your thing, but then we can also add in info.

• 0:42Speaker 01

  Meaning if I'm going, you mean after, I can't talk while this is running because that'll be destructive audio, right?

• 0:48Speaker 00

  Yes. So it'll play the full clip, like we have the timestamps, full clip, you talk and then

• 0:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's gonna play, I'm gonna react. You might have, you might, if I go for seven minutes and answer all your quick, hurt, go. You don't think most of the world is gonna be living in a live streaming universe in the next three to four years? You're crazy. Cause it's coming. And every single high school kid is gonna be walking around, live streaming through their phone and everything's gonna be out there and it's gonna all be saved. And somebody might not be watching that. Everybody says to me, yeah Gary, I've heard your theory on that, but isn't everybody so diverse that nobody's gonna be really watching it? Sure, nobody's gonna be watching it, but it's all gonna be logged. It's always there. It's there forever. And so what you need to ask yourself is, what am I doing with my life today? And do I believe in what I'm doing?

• 1:37Speaker 01

  You know, it's crazy to watch that so many things just went, or listen to that, so many things just went through my mind. One, I, people often ask me these days, what have I gotten wrong? And I always say, in my younger career, I used to think things were gonna happen faster than they did. And I really refer to the nineties and early 2000s, but it's humbling and I like to rass myself, even in 2008, I hadn't fully learned that lesson yet because I talked about live streaming happening by 2011 and 12 and really, I feel like it's only really happened since, I guess maybe before COVID with Twitch, but we're really there now. That's one. Two,

• 2:18Speaker 01

  it's, it's, it's scary to see like how much I saw live streaming coming. Um, and, and, uh, I appreciate that, but like, yeah, I mean, I'm always looking for consumer behavior, much of what I pay attention to, I'm trying to get the timing right in my older age more, but, um, you know, that was, that was fun to hear. Questions team?

• 2:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, um, just kind of going into the future of live streaming, how does live streaming cultivate a community in a way that's different from edited social content?

• 2:49Speaker 01

  It's because it's live and there's a follow along chat. If you actually pay attention to live shopping or live streaming, the community starts to become friends with themselves and each other, oftentimes not even worrying about the subject anymore that's live because you've got the old 1990s community bulletin boards, right? Twitter, 2009, you know, 2007, excuse me, vibes of like, oh, we're talking to each other with less friction. These live chats, and I saw this in, the reason I was able to say what I said in that video is I started to feel these effects with Ustream, because I was ustreaming back then, you know, even before Justin TV and which became Twitch, everyone. Um, and

• 3:33Speaker 01

  what I knew was, oh wow, they like talking about me with each other or what I'm doing. And this is why I believe so much in live shopping, because I think it's all about community, community, community. And so that's what you're, what you're seeing there, the, the sense of community, we're all watchers of this. Well, guess who I love the most? All the watchers of the New York Jets. They're my best friends. Right? And so this might be around an individual doing mundane stuff, but when people are like, that's mundane stuff. I'm like, well, that's what they said about reality TV. They shit on that. Look what that's, and so like, you know, and that obviously reality TV became a hybrid of like half real, half not. This is fully real. Not everybody can afford a backpack and walk around. Most people have no interest in even that level of scrutiny or weirdness, but it keeps getting de-stigmatized.

• 4:18Speaker 01

  And whether you're running around the world like a neon or something of that nature, or you're just sitting at your desk, like, you know, kind of more like a Kai, it really doesn't matter. I believe so many more people should be live streaming. A, one of the great opportunities to build your brand is to go live on TikTok because they send you audience.

• 4:39Speaker 01

  Or B, if you're really gonna go for it and you think you got it, to go into that Twitch kick kind of reality. And so, yeah, that's where I'm at.

• 4:47Speaker 00

  Cool. This actually leads to a great segue to the second clip, which is about live shopping.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  This is gonna be, this is, this is my, this should be my podcast. If I wasn't building each podcast network, this should be my podcast. Like the level of depth I just went into. Go ahead. The big business idea that's out there right now is the QVC Home Shopping Network Internet Play. Pay attention to what I'm saying to you. Online video, low production cost, live streaming, Ustream style, slap it on a site and then affiliate link underneath yourself for the rest of your life, you will make straight cash. Same thing that QVC does. Nothing different. Get people on, let them affiliate with you, live stream it, build up that credibility. You have a billion dollar player, a little charisma in a host or two and straight hustle

• 5:40Speaker 01

  hitting it out of the park by putting product after product after product on video, live on the internet, building up that audience and then just selling it through affiliate link. It's easier to click in shopping cart than it is actually to even call QVC and place an order bot. It's even a lower cost of entry. Plus, in the beginning, you don't even have to make the business deals yourself because things like Commission Junction and all these things out there have nothing but affiliate links left and right. Within a week or two, month, after you get a little hype, your P O box will be full of crack for you to sell on this show.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  I don't know if I've ever made a better piece of content in my life. I don't know what else to tell you. Like even for me, just sitting there right now, everybody who's listening, that was from 2008. I, I don't know what else to say that maybe when I die, they should play that clip and say that he made this 20 years before it happened. Like, I don't even know what you want me to say to that team. Like, that is ludicrous. Like most of my old school clip, I told you so 20 years ago has something that's like off or like a little, like, you know what I mean? That's like, that literally, I literally was like, when we put it, when we post that, like, I'm like, no wonder everyone's like, this is AI. Like, how could you possibly believe

• 6:55Speaker 01

  that I could hit it that hard in the news that long ago? I don't know what you want me to talk about besides glazing myself.

• 7:04Speaker 00

  I have one question, kind of more leading into like the future now. You talk a lot about like and, like that and mindset. We have analog, we have in like real life experiences, live shopping. So like, what does an and mindset look for businesses using live shopping? Like examples that you can give?

• 7:20Speaker 01

  Well, you're just leading the horse to the water. I agree with you. Like, I don't understand why anyone who sells stuff and is a retailer or makes product isn't live stream shopping, selling every day. And let me be very clear to the broader audience.

• 7:37Speaker 01

  Everybody right now, live shopping is what social media was in 2007. Everybody knew what social was. It was already big. But every, but it was nowhere close to what it was about to be over the next 20 years. Right now, everybody kind of knows live shopping is happening. Including you four on my team right now that are working with this podcast with me. You know, you're like, yeah, especially you hang out with me. You're like, it's big. You have no fucking idea how big this thing is.

• 8:04Speaker 02

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration blog or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses setup required. Compatibility and availability varies. 18 plus.

• 8:38Speaker 01

  And so that great pause, everyone, your podcast wasn't broken. That great pause was to make my final point. If you're trying to make a couple of side bucks, you should go on whatnot or eBay Live or Fanatics Live or TikTok and try to sell stuff in your house. If you've got a little side project, you make your own hot sauce, jam, honey. You must go on. You must go online shopping and start selling stuff. You must try to see if you're that person. Not everybody went on to be an influencer. No shit, but everybody had a chance to be an influencer. Everybody has a chance to be a live shopper. And a lot of you who are not destined to be an influencer because you're not an entertainer or an educator

• 9:19Speaker 01

  might crush on live shopping because you're a salesman.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  In fact, salesmen suck at social usually. Because they have no romance, they just go in for the kill. But that does well on live shopping.

• 9:34Speaker 01

  Different strokes for different folks. This has been a huge opportunity for many people who failed at trying to be social influencers. And I can't wait for this podcast to be referenced in my emails. Like this was the moment I really shook them into understanding, oh shit, you're right. I wasn't going to be Alex Earl or Logan Paul, but I'm going to be Donnie Thompson. And I'm going to be one of 10 best live shopping sellers in the world.

• 9:56Speaker 00

  Cool, but actually you're leading into the other clip, which is on the individual empire and like personal branding. And so we're going to play that clip now.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  There's no doubt in my mind that the people that have personal brand in this movement right now, over the next decade, will have enormous opportunity for monetizing. I hate every tech thing when people present, how are you going to monetize it? Of course, that's what everybody thinks about. But going back to the legacy is greater than currency. If you're talking about what you believe in and you're building your personal brand in this space right now, I think you are absolutely hitting some vocal and a very important vocal, critical points, sorry, that's how the brain works sometimes. Critical points in this huge opportunistic era. That is the gold rush of personal brand.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  I, you know, it's funny. I, I feel like with live shopping, with collectibles, I'm in the moment I was back then where I saw the world and other people struggled fully seeing it.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  That was my reaction to that, like how uncomfortably correct all that is. And how uncomfortably correct I am about collectibles joining music, fashion and sports as a lifestyle genre? And how live shopping is the biggest opportunity for businesses and people? And that's that.

• 11:20Speaker 01

  Do you guys have any questions to wrap? Yeah, there we go, Ragga.

• 11:24Speaker 03

  How long did it take at that point? For you to see, like from that clip to people seeing that that was true?

• 11:32Speaker 01

  Well, Mark Zuckerberg saw it five, three years before that clip.

• 11:39Speaker 01

  And Ashton Kutcher saw it when I, when I did that clip. He was already in the game on Twitter. But like, you know, that's the punchline right now. Like, how many people see what I see with live shopping? Shockingly small. Every single big influencer should be live stream shopping every day. Not every day, that's crazy, they're too busy other things. But like once a week, Logan Paul should be live stream shopping once a week. Alex Earl should be live stream shopping once a week.

• 12:08Speaker 01

  Like I show speed, Kai said, like everyone should be doing this. But they're now like the Hollywood actors that didn't want to do social because they're in social.

• 12:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:22Speaker 01

  There's a whole breed of 10,000 people, three of which are listening to this podcast that are about to become. And by the way, you know what the difference between being an influencer and live shopping? Being an influencer, you have to wait for your economics to trickle down to you. Ad revenue from the platform, managers get big enough to care. Live shopping, motherfucker. You make money day one. And you know what people don't know about influencers? There's a long tail. The 18th million most important influencer is making 800 bucks a day. Or whatever the math is, I think that might be too high, but you see where I'm going. Same with live shopping. If you might be destined to be the 900,000th best live shopper in the world. And you will make more money than your full-time job being it.

• 13:06Speaker 01

  Whether you're a paid host to sell someone else's thing or you stand up your own thing and you're the face of it. Everybody, if you enjoyed this podcast, let me know. Hit me up on Twitter, email, like find me and let me know. We're trying different formats. This one feels real in-depth. This one's going to get some love, I think. From the people who are like, oh, this is Gary Vaynerchuk, not Gary V. We'll see you next time.

• 13:27Speaker 04

  Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5, only at McDonald's for a limited time. Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.

• 13:42Speaker 05

  Sam's Club is the club for every holiday club. Guess who's joining the club this season? Walmart Plus. Yep, Sam's Club Plus membership now comes with Walmart Plus at no extra cost. Two memberships, one great price. Just 120 bucks a year can save you time and over $700. Want to get in on the membership duo of the century? Visit sam'sclub.com. Come join us. Sam's Club.