Social Media Changed in the Last Year (and you didn’t realize it)

The one-second economy is the thumbnail, the screen. We're living in a world that's so fast. How do you capture somebody for one second so that you can have them for one year? Before I can get people to really know about the depths of how I think about mental mindset, kindness, bringing value. Before you do all of that, you have to know how to get somebody to know you for a second. And that's the economy we live in now. Thumbnail on Netflix is the one-second economy. The thumbnail on social is the one-second economy. The first words you say, what's the thumbnail look like? How do you win on the one-second economy on Spotify, on SoundCloud if you're a rapper, on TikTok live if you're a streamer or Twitch. How do you do that in thumbnail? First three seconds, the stuff we work on, I'm with team Gary. So the whole ecosystem. Good morning, good morning, good morning, everybody. Welcome to episode 101. Great to see all of you. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Ask a question in the chat. Use five question marks. We're here to answer your questions. Do I think there's AI startups that are overvalued? For sure. But there was a social media bubble that they said. That's because there were 500 social media networks getting tens of millions of dollars in funding. At the time, tens of millions felt like hundreds of millions. And Bebo and Orchid and all these other things, Peach, Plum, Social Cam, they all went out of business. But Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and TikTok went on to become some of the biggest companies in the world. There is no AI bubble. There's an AI startup bubble. But artificial intelligence is about to fundamentally change the world forever. So don't get it twisted. Like AI is not going backwards. There was a NFT bubble for individual projects. But vFriends is going to be one of the most significant digital collectibles of all time. And the blockchain is going to matter forever. Joe Burrow to the Jets. Maybe I'd be interested. All right, let's get into the questions. Who's got the first question? Looks like Raghav. Fire away, bro. So I've been thinking a lot about this. I've been talking about, internally, this is probably an internal question, about this one second economy. I'm actually writing a new book, kind of, because I haven't started. We've got some real work to do, called The Individual Empire. And this is the concept of like, it's like kind of like the final chapter of Crush It. It's like, in 2009, I talked about, I think that you can make a living by being a personality on the internet. Talking about being a creator, an influencer, long before it existed. Didn't even have the words for it. Did not use that. If you read Crush It. Now I'm writing a book called The Individual Empire because I think now we're at the end state where a human can be a corporation. I would argue that I am that. I'm Gary Vee. VaynerChuck, VaynerMedia, VaynerX is a $350 million a year business. Built on the back of my personal brand and then execution. Empathy Wines, Resi, and definitely Vee Friends when I build this to be the next Marvel and the next Pokemon will be on the back. Logan Paul and Prime, Stephen Bartlett, Mr. Beast. You're starting to see Alex Cooper, Alex Earl. You're seeing humans become corporations. That's The Individual Empire. The one second economy is what's happening right now in real life. Like, why are there 3,000 people watching right now? One, it might be because we're not on a retail show. We're on a regular stream. I know that caught Courtney's attention. This is not 1,000, right? Like, it's because what I'm doing, whatever I'm doing right now in format, in content, it's working to capture, as you guys all know, this is the first time we're over 3,000 because we're not on a commerce, right? We're not on commerce. There's 3,100 people watching right now. Did I know how to use TikTok Live properly? Am I engaging with people in the one second? The thumbnail, the screen. We're living in a world that's so fast. How do you capture somebody for one second so that you can have them for one year, right? How do you capture somebody for one second so you can have them for one year before I can get people to really know about the depths of how I think about mental mindset, kindness, bringing value, you know? Joey Vee, Joey V-E-E, Gary's old news. I like that. Hopefully Joey Vee is new news. Everybody go follow Joey V-E-E. He says I'm old news. Maybe he's new news. So, you know, before you do all of that, you have to know how to get somebody to know you for a second. And that's the economy we live in now. You know, the thumbnail on Netflix is the one second economy. The thumbnail on social is the one second economy. The first words you say, and obviously the one second economy might be a little bit hyperbolized, but we're definitely in a 10 second economy. Notice how you all just reacted with head nods. After 10 seconds, you kind of know, right? So anyway, you're just trying to bring value, trying to teach people how to win in the one second economy. What's the first words out of your mouth on your first podcast? What's the thumbnail look like? How do you win on the one second economy? On Spotify, on SoundCloud if you're a rapper, on TikTok, live if you're a streamer, or Twitch, or Kik. How do you do that in thumbnail, first three seconds, the stuff we work on on Team Gary for shorts and Snapchat Spotlight. So the whole ecosystem. That's where I'm at with it. Let's keep it going. Fire away, Nerea. Is there anything you're leaning to right now that you're learning that you wouldn't trust yourself to teach? I would say candor. I talk about this a lot. My candor is still just okay. It was atrocious seven years ago, especially somebody running a company of my size. I would talk about the power of candor, but teaching on, I like to talk about things I'm really good at, collectibles and selling stuff, or marketing, or mindset, or happiness, or perspective. All my content, as you all know, is about that all day. All of you that are watching right now, you guys know that's what I like talking about, but candor is something I can talk about. It's valuable, but I would argue it's not my strength. RR says, you're my mentor, you don't even know it. I appreciate it. I want you to know I do know it. What makes me want to make content every day is knowing so many of you have extracted value out of the things that I've said or the stuff that I put out. And I just want everybody to know I'm just a vessel or a vehicle of what's happened before me. My mom taught me this. She got it from somewhere. The world has been talking about these principles forever. So I'm nothing new, everyone. I'm just brave enough to say it in the face of scaled global pushback. The only thing I'm doing different is I'm doing it publicly on the internet and social media where 890 people can give you feedback in a way that didn't exist years ago. So let's keep it going. Brono. Wasim asks, I built an AI avatar I think you can buy in real estate niche. My hooks, scripts, and visuals are solid, but after 12 reels, I'm capped at 200 views. I'm questioning whether the issue is read first. 12? Keep going. When you test something new, how do you isolate whether the format itself is a friction of it or the content simply hasn't had to tie into our intention? What he's struggling with, I outwork. Right now he's like, I've done 12, it's not working. Should it be something else? My answer is both. Keep doing the format you've got and add another format that costs more work. The reason I'm good at and and everyone else loves or is because of my work ethic. And it's harder. Uh-oh. We're getting somewhere, friends. The reason, the answer to this question is make more stuff. Like, okay, I've got a format. It's not working, right? Taco Politico. Didn't your father own a liquor store? He did and I built it for him and I got underpaid for 12 years building it for him. So that's that. Like would have made more money if I did anything else besides building my dad's liquor store for 12 years. I'm left with nothing. So anyway, back to it. He needs to outwork it. I don't know if his format's right or not. He's only done 12. So he needs to do another 200. But if he's already questioning if it's right, he needs to do those 200 and more stuff. This is not AI Pine Lodge Foundation. It's good to see you. That's it. Outwork your curiosity. You like that one? You like that, right? It's real. Outwork your curiosity. Like outwork your insecurity. I don't have it figured out. But it might be right. That's it, my friends. I appreciate that, Raz. I think it's real. Your rebate says aha moment, right? A lot of people, it's my post this morning. You guys saw it. I wrote a nice little thing this morning. Kid came up to me yesterday at the party. Was like, I really got it. He's working as security at Tao where we were last night. He's like, I see people doing stuff and I know I can do it. I'm like, so do it. He didn't like that, right? He likes sitting in like, oh, I can. You guys, you know what this is. A lot of you like talking about that you could be doing what someone else is doing because that makes you feel better. But you're not doing it. I lived that in physical fitness. Like I really thought at 38 that I was going to get a six pack like that. I'm like, oh, I could do that. I'll just get discipline. I'll lock in. Well, here I am 12 years later. I don't have it. It's ******* hard. You know, you know, like it didn't make me feel better. I didn't feel like I was. Some people feel like they're doing something by saying they can do it. Some of you motherfuckers think you're doing something by saying that you can do it. Oh, they got lucky. I can do that. You're not doing anything by talking. Listen, everybody. I might change this from tea with GaryVee to like mornings of ahas with GaryVee. Like this is about ahas. I'm here for ahas. I'm here like, aha. Like I'm here for ahas. Elevated says, dang, you're right. Yeah, bro. A lot of me were like, I can do that. But that's not doing something. And like, you know, Carter West and I'm sorry you think that you're I will prove that wrong, bro. You know, be friends is a scam. You go to eBay and check out what's going on with these. You don't think that like, again, people more focused on tearing down than building up, tearing down someone else makes you feel better about you wrong. You know, I don't know, man. I want you guys doing stuff to make yourself happier. I want you to understand why you're unhappy or what's hurting. Like that's, you know, I'm excited for you. Look at this, Joey Vee. Gary, I dropped out of college and sold my company for 25 million. Makes me so happy, man. So happy for you, Joey. One Piece, TCG's, Red Hot, Victor Ramirez. One Piece back to being very hot again. Yeah, Dave's right. Positivity takes more energy and bravery. It's very easy. Do you know why everyone shits on everyone on the internet? Because it's easy. It's so easy. It's so easy for me to open up my Instagram right now or my TikTok and just be like, you suck. It's much harder to put my phone down, go do something, and have someone come to me and say, you're great. That's why there's so much hate on the internet. So easy. Because people think they're tough, but they're super weak. People that spew hate on the internet think they're tough talking that ----. I'm keeping it real. **** you. No, no. You're a pussy. How about that? Real talk. All right, let's keep going. How would you build a community from scratch in this current environment? This is the easiest time to build community in the world. I would do it by doing what I'm doing right now. Go on TikTok Live and talk to people. I got a big one. I am envious of all of you that have less than 1,000 followers on TikTok. I am envious. Because I love the climb and the build. And if I had 1,000, it would mean that more likely I'd be not very busy. Or maybe I'd be busy because I'm doing something, but I'm not going to assume that. But I am envious for the people that have less than 1,000. Because going live on TikTok right now, just going live, is one of the great opportunities in the world. And if you have less than 1,000, you would only have 13, 9, 6, 33, 41 people in the room. And you could go deep. I wish right now, and I could, but it's hard because it goes so fast. I wish I could go deep with everyone, but I can't. And that would be awesome. 50 people going deep is how you build a community. So how would I build a community? I'd go on TikTok Live, have the algorithm and the FYP send me people, bring them value on video, and start from scratch and build up every day. And go live as often as I could. This has never been easier. All right, let's keep going. Perfumes is the number one trending product category on TikTok in the last 30 days. Pinterest also has search trends among Gen Z and millennials, where there's a rise in search for niche perfume collections, scent layering, perfume notes, a lot of niche fragrance formulas. Is there a reason you're seeing that? Yeah, boys are trying to hook up, bro. Men are trying to smash. Boys are boys. It's that time of year. By the way, y'all, many things change in the world and some things don't. Boys are trying to get it. That's all I got for you on that. Again, a deeper answer to that, because by the way, a year ago boys were trying to smash too, and it wasn't trending as much. It's content on the internet. TikTok Shop is changing the game right now in real time. TikTok Shop is changing the game, so people are selling more of that. Influencers are changing what people are into. Do you know why people were clean shaven in the late 90s and not bearded out? It was called friends. Do you all know why people literally in 99, nobody had facial hair? In 1999 in America, nobody had facial hair. It was called friends. That's what was cool. Those boys were clean shaven. We were clean shaven. Yeah, Dave said mind blown. By the way, one of my predictions is clean shaving will come back, because we've been in bearded, some sort of facial hair, mustache for so long that we get tired. I call this the jeans theory. We go from tight ass jeans to baggy jeans, the tight ass jeans to baggy jeans every seven to 12 years because we get bored. We go long hair, short hair, long hair, short hair. Facial hair, non-facial hair. Perfume, not perfume. Cologne, not perfume. By the way, I said recently, including me, I might go a whole year just wearing suits. I've been cash for 25. I'm starting to be like, man, I just want to wear a suit every day for a year. I think we've gone so casual. I mean, we look like bums at the airport. Has anybody ever seen an airport? We're bumming it. We're slobbing it. I love it because I'm cash like that, right? Wearing a cap. I'm cash like that. But I really think we are in a place where we might go, like people are going to want to dress up and like do it. Like you can just see things changing. Things are always changing. So anyway, let's keep it going. I got one. Friends, this is my one. It's so funny. I literally took this off the shelf yesterday because it's been on my mind. Friends, this is the curious crane. This is a befriend called the curious crane. I highly recommend you find curious crane stuff. You know, go to this place and go look up curious crane. I want everybody to get into curiosity in 2026. Curiosity will create the outcome you're looking for. Bobby Libs, that makes me so happy. Curiosity will create the outcome you're looking for. Why? What? Why? What? Why? What? Real fast says curiosity killed the cat. In that story, curiosity blended into nosiness and that killed the cat. Curiosity didn't kill the cat. Nosiness and not minding your own ******* business killed the cat. That's actually the other thing I want for everybody in 2026. I wish I had mind your own ******* business back in V Friends. You want to really get happy, everyone? Mind your own ******* business. Your ******* two cents on everybody's life means I don't give a... Do you really think your opinion on Haley Bieber and Justin Bieber's life should be ******* shared, you ******* nosy bitch? You want to get real happy? Live my life that my mom taught me. It's not even mine. What my mom taught me. Stay out of people's business. Let me say it a different way that's not as aggressive. Have compassion and empathy for others. What they might be going through behind closed doors or in their mind that you don't know, which might be leading them to doing behaviors that you judge. Uh-oh. That's a little more therapist way to do it. Let me give you the street kid. Mind your own ******* business, dickface. And now let me give you the compassionate uncle advice. How about you don't know what's actually going on in someone else's life? So before you jump to conclusions of why they suck, how about having some sympathy, compassion, and empathy to maybe they're going through something. Anyway, who is this? What's your best garage sale found? I found like 8,000 Broadway playbills from the 1940s to the 1980s for 20 bucks. That was like 10K in eBay for my nephew. So everyone, I hope that really helped that little rant. Because that stuff is real. That stuff is real. Thank you for that, everybody. All right, let's keep it going. Next questions. I'm 28. I own an S&P doing about 2.5 million. I do all our marketing. Social is crushed. My father has sold advertising his whole life. He wants to put dollars into traditional banner ads and direct mail, et cetera. I want to do organic social. The answer is purple, but what does that combo look like? That you do organic social first and then you run media against it for performance. There's a middle ground. Organic social first, then paid media for conversion on CAC and LTV and ROAS. That should help you and dad awesomely, awesomely, awesomely execute. Emory asking, how did I do on Bitcoin? Well, I bought it in 2014. Didn't buy enough, but I've done well on Bitcoin. I'm very bullish on it. I really had it. I had it in 2014. I had it. I've had it. But the good news is I invested in Coinbase in 2014 as a hedge, as a parallel path. I bet big on that and that's worked out lovely. What vacation spot would you like to visit? Mr. Eyebrow says, there's not much left. Historically, I'm not someone who wants to see the pyramids or Big Ben. I don't want to go sightseeing. Me and Trane were in Portugal after I was done with my talk. Trane's like, oh, I'm going to walk around. He hadn't traveled a lot. It was the first time you were in Europe, right? He was walking around and I was like, man, this is the first time Trane's in Europe. He's walking around. He's already walked around Europe more than I have in my life. I'm in and out, working in the hotel room. I'm not into travel. I am into relaxation. I do like to go for a one-week vacation in a beachy place and just lay and rest my body and my mind. I'm into that. I'm more beach and just eat and rest and sleep, listen to music, maybe read a book once a year, more so than a meditation or health and wellness retreat. Definitely more than sightseeing. Man, I hate sightseeing heavy. I ******* hate sightseeing. Sightseeing is the worst. And yet, why? Because I'm not, that's where I don't have curiosity. I don't want to go out of my way to like look at something like, oh, nice, a thing. On the flip side, so many people love it and I'm so pumped for all of you. Like I do want to go, like I would love to go to March Madness, final four weekend, hang around for three days, talking sports, watching basketball games and going home. Love, that's an experience for me. Everyone sees things differently. By the way, this is my thing, by the way, everyone, back to compassion, empathy, sympathy. I don't like to go and see things, but I'm pumped for people that like to go and see things. I wish we had more love like that in the world. A lot of people, when someone likes to do something they don't like, they like ---- on that. I don't like surfing. I don't like golfing, but my brother loves golfing and I love that for him. You know, like I don't know why, again, this goes back to that judgment. Your judgment's destroying your happiness. My friends, your judgment is destroying your happiness. It's like politics. I am blown away by people's belief that the way they see the world is the way that every other human should see the world. I curse like a sailor. But when someone in here left because I cursed a little bit ago and they're like, no, I don't like that guy. I understand them because they might have grown up in the South and their grandma told them cursing is the devil and that's their life. And I respect that. But I ******* like to curse because I'm a Jersey boy from the ******* dirt. That's what we do. You know, like, Emery, good for you. I judge and then catch myself. We all, it's a natural human trait. We have to all unlearn. So many of you use DNA and the way you were parented. You've got to unlearn your things. Let me teach you something I'm unlearning and working on right now. I am working on my glute med on the left side. All of my back issues. Finally, at 50, it's been diagnosed. Everything bad and probably a lot to do with why I don't have a left hand in basketball. Everything bad is because, is the glute med the one on the outside? Is the max on the inside? I don't know which one's on the inside. The outer part. Friends, fitness friends, which is the glute med and the glute max? What's on the outside? I think the glute med. I don't know. Anyway, I am unlearning outside. Glute med, beautiful. I'm learning how to not use my adductors and my QL. And my QL was used so much that I've had a bad back since I was 18. It would lock. The QL would lock. I'm now learning. We're going through heavy therapy. Me and Mike are working every day to activate my glute med. My glute med, my outer left glute has not actually functioned. My brain and it have not been connected and everything else was making me functional. I'm learning. I'm literally learning that. You can learn to undo your hate. You can learn to undo your insecurity. That's an emotional. I'm doing a physical one. I've crushed the physical stuff. I could have. My dad's cynical as ----. My dad deploys judgment at scale. My dad's answer to everything is no. Mine is maybe to yes. We've all got stuff. So anyway, everyone got it. Gary, do you think 34 is too old to start over? Mitch, I started over at 34. 22 to 34, worked for my father, got paid dick, built a huge business for him. Proudest moment of my life. Borderline little under, unsubconscious resentment because I was 34 and I was like, man, I did a lot. I started over at 34. 53 is not too old, Anna Banana, 26. Like Sidney Frank started Grey Goose at 73. Colonel Sanders, KFC was started by a man in his 60s. He started at 60. KFC. Happy days. Good to see you. Yeah, like Leah says, I'm 51 and life 2.0 is addicting. Damn straight. Justin says, love the positive vibes. Who stumbled on here and is loving it and wants to hang here because this is the positive part of the internet. Congrats, everybody. You found the positive part of the internet. Congrats, everybody. You found the positive part of the internet. I am here strictly for two things. To get you happy, to make you money. And by the way, the first one's way more important than the second one. I am strictly here for two things, you motherfuckers. To get you happy and to get you money. And let me tell you how you do that. You start getting in the thumbs business versus the fingers business. The second I get y'all who just stumbled on me to stop blaming everybody, to stop blaming everyone, to stop blaming everyone, and to start blaming yourself, it's counterproductive. You're like, damn, if I blame myself, maybe I get depressed because I'm shitting on myself. No, no, being accountable doesn't get you to depression. Being accountable is very easy to be while still equally loving yourself. That's called giving yourself grace for how you got here. Have you given yourself grace? Somebody just said in here, Gary, I'm broke. I need your help. It went fast. I saw it. Don't be sad that you're broke. Know that today's the day you can be not broke. TikTok affiliate. Who here knows what TikTok affiliate is? I need all of you to chat GPT or Google how to become a TikTok affiliate. Somebody in this room of the 1,359, somebody in this room is about to hear a piece of advice in the next 13 seconds that's going to change their life. I need you to become a TikTok affiliate. I believe out of the 1,368, 100 of you will. And I believe six of you will be successful. And that's great by me. Because the other 94 to try something else you'll do. Congratulations for finding the positive part of the internet. You found me. We're here. It's about happiness and making money. Look at that, Brian. I made 30K in three months being an affiliate. Made 100K in a month for getting on TikTok. Guys, TikTok affiliate. Buying stuff at the dollar store, thrift shops, garage sales, yard sales, antique shops, and flipping it on the bay or on TikTok live or on other platforms. This is real stuff. Stan store. Stan.store. Go check it. Selling digital product. This is all real. It's all, you're all capable. This is all real. I just sold my first 2K in GMV. Let's go, Julia. You, I'm telling you. Look what's going on. Joey, I'm sad you think that, my guy. I wish you nothing but good. Everybody, jobs at my company. You can go to VaynerMedia or BeFriends Jobs. Google that. Check out. Not Stan, Stan.store. Let's ask a couple more questions. Go. You mentioned that you feel most like yourself in one-on-one settings and garage sales. Based on that, is there like part of you that you might assume is authentic, but actually takes effort for you to sustain other areas? Yeah, of course. Everything is effort. But I don't think of things in black and white. You know, Justin C says, damn, dude aged badly. Justin, I feel, I just want to send you some love. A couple things. Yeah, man, like 40 to 50 is a whole different game, my guy. Two, I don't wash my face with the good stuff. Three, the genetics are crazy. My dad looks like a prune. D, I've always had the raccoon eyes and all that. E, I'm doing nothing good for myself in the lighting. Watch this. I can age better in a second. It's called like use better lighting, right? Like, like, you know, you know, and then F, most importantly, I just want to send you some love, Justin, because the number one thing that sucks in life is spending your time and energy to try to hurt other people's feelings. I might have aged badly, but you're living life badly, which makes me sad. I got love for you, you know, and I'm addressing it here because I need people to understand, you know, somebody whose life is about tearing down others is just in a bad place. And I don't hate them. I feel bad for them. I'm not mad at them. I've got love for them. I'm trying to figure out, like, what can I say to flip it so they can switch to positivity? You know, I'm so grateful that I have so much security in my soul that I'm not asking for the light to get so good. People are just blown away by that light thing. Lighting is crazy, y'all. Lighting is crazy. But I'm on some, like, I don't give a **** energy. It's not bad to look better. I mean, I'm not against it, but I'm not about it. And more importantly, it gives me the opportunity to have this real conversation with y'all, which is don't be like Justin. And by the way, Justin, I got love for you, meaning I want to get Justin out of a place where it's his natural reaction to come on and be like, let me say something that hurts. I'm trying to get all of you to come into every interaction with every human being on Earth and deploy, you know, I want to say something that's nice. Because that's it. That's the real game. Someone said, why don't you avoid them? I don't want to avoid it because I want all of you to hear it. Because this isn't about Justin or me. This is for all of you. A lot of you, a lot of you are Justin. You're all talking ---- now, but like in real life, you say negative things all the time. How many people here, let's own it. Let's have a real ownable moment, everybody. How many people here have left a negative comment on somebody else's social to ---- on them? Say I have in the chat. Just own it. Be honest. A lot of people are no, and way more people are I have. And I'm just trying to get everyone that's watching right now that has to understand that there's a better way for them. Well, one person said I did, but they were a Cowboys fan. That's respect. Probably the only negative interactions I've ever had are with Patriot fans. It's real, you know? So anyway, I love you all. I'll see you. Have the best day. See you.