- We want to be very thoughtful of what we're doing,
because you're only as vulnerable
as the one person you let down.
And, so, I don't think there's a lot of people
in the game that understand
where the business world is going,
and, boy, what you do for a living,
you know, at the position that you're doing it at,
like, it's just hardcore.
(electronic music)
Yo, what up vlog.
Location, location, location, location,
just like I'm sitting here right now
in Sydney Australia Airport.
And the way I've been thinking about business down here,
is whether it's for modeling or for surfing,
or footy kind of culture,
when you understand the framework that you're playing in
you have a much better chance of succeeding.
In this little chat I had with a first round pick
of New York Mets,
I was really to articulate to him and his family,
but really him, if you watch it carefully,
even though I'm not directly addressing him,
that you need to squeeze your moment.
I'm yelling at all of you for squeezing this Facebook Ads,
Instagram influencers moment,
the way I didn't as much as I wanted to with Google
back in 2002,
'cause it's a moment in time.
If you're an athlete,
and you're lucky enough to be drafted
in New-York-fucking-City,
you need to fucking work.
And whether you're drafted in New York, LA,
or San Francisco,
or if it's Dallas, Green Bay, or Detroit,
you need to be smart about the unique opportunities
within the marketplace.
The framework of this conversation, is,
take advantage of your surroundings.
If you're going to UCLA or USC this year,
take advantage of that environment.
If you're going to Duke or North Carolina,
understand and take advantage of that.
If you're going to travel through Europe,
understand the room you're playing in
and the advantages,
the fruits that you can pick from.
You'll see that in this interview.
Well, thanks for reaching out.
And I've been looking forward to getting together.
- Yeah, no, I've been very impressed with what I've seen,
very impressed with what you're doing.
- [Gary] Thank you.
- Sort of seen you growing from the ground up.
And I just wanted to talk about the agency game,
and what you feel that,
you guys think is different for the kids out there.
I wanted to come in
and talk a little bit about social media,
and kind of speak to my son a little bit about it,
and what you feel about,
how you can help kids with regards to
what agencies are not doing,
or what they are doing.
- So, given the opportunity
that we're all sitting here together,
I'm thrilled to, like,
given you have the most context,
obviously, you have the most context of your son,
and you've been able to context on me,
what can I bring you the most value of?
Is this a theoretical conversation?
Is there some details underneath?
To be very honest,
as you know, where we sit with baseball versus football,
and things of that nature,
like, I'm obsessed with the notion of paying forward.
I think karma is the most practical thing in the world.
Even your first email caught my attention from the vibe,
the second, black coffee, all that stuff,
so it's all good vibes,
it's all family.
At the highest levels,
I've been in two businesses my life.
My dad had a liquor store,
so I've been in the liquor and wine business,
and now I'm in the advertising Madison Avenue industry.
Along with my dad,
and along with my brother,
we've been able to build much bigger businesses
quicker than anybody has in both those spaces,
and they have one common theme,
which was, I think what I'm good at
is like CAT-scanning the industry.
And when I looked at him,
I was like, "Wow.
"This is what they're doing wrong.
I'm gonna do this."
This being probably our third venture, VaynerSports.
I've never looked at an industry.
And because I'm investor in Uber, and Facebook, and Twitter,
and all these things,
I look at a lot of businesses,
not just the two I've run.
I've never looked at a business more broken.
Now, I'm empathic to the agents.
To be very honest, I don't think it's a great business.
You know, making small percentages,
having nobody really locked up,
you can have a kid for a long time,
you know, you get fired before the real money comes in.
It's not a great business.
And I think when a business is not great,
it leads to bad behavior.
At the same token,
I don't think AJ and I are necessarily in it
to become rich,
and, so, that allows us to be a little more altruistic
and, to be very frank, what I'm most interested in,
which is to fuck it up a little bit.
I mean, very basically,
agents, they don't care about their kids.
And honestly, I get that.
It's a business.
But that's the vulnerability.
The reason we're being so thoughtful,
and listen,
and this is a real player,
this is a real situation,
and we've had some other real situations in the NBA,
and things of that nature,
is we want to be very thoughtful of what we're doing,
because you're only as vulnerable as the one person
you let down.
And, so, I don't think there's a lot of people
in the game that understand
where the business world is going,
and, boy, what you do for a living,
you know, at the position that you're doing it at,
like, it's just hardcore, right?
For me, it's data, right?
When you're the human,
people think they're going to hall of fame,
as they should,
how the fuck do you think they got there in the first place?
When you look at the data of the outcomes of careers,
you know, I'm sure you guys know better than I do,
you're holding your breath,
you're thinking about this,
you're thinking about that.
It's hardcore.
So, there's some good advantages in baseball
with guarantee contracts,
is if you can get to that place,
but, for me, the biggest thing is,
you have to strike and squeeze,
when the outcome of like this great thing
has this low of percentages,
you have to squeeze the fuck out of it
while you've got the leverage.
I'm a big Jets fan.
I tell these kids when they're a Jet,
I'm like, "Look, you're in New York City.
Like, I'm meeting with you.
You think I would meet with you
if you're weren't a New York."
If you weren't Number 32 of the New York Jets,
I would never spend, you know,
and these kids don't.
I think of Dexter McDougle,
I think about all these kids.
Like, while you're in,
when you're a draft pick of that team,
like the amount of people that are ruling the world,
especially in New York,
that are diehard Mets fans,
that really give a shit right now, and may not,
listen, I'm an old time baseball card collector,
Brien Taylor was the first pick overall
of the New York Yankees,
and we all cared.
- I remember.
I'm a diehard Yankee fan.
Trust me, it hurts my hard that got draft picked.
(laughs)
- Did you grow up a Yankee fan?
I love it, I love it.
I get it, I get it, I get it.
But it's still great that he's here, man it's the best.
But, right?
Brien Taylor, forget about the contract he got,
which was probably why we all knew who he was,
'cause it was a big one at the time,
you know, every CEO in this, the biggest city in the world
call it what it is, cared about...
That's right, and for me the most important thing
like if I was a part of this team, an enormous amount.
Now first of all, I think the other thing that's gonna
allow us to be successful and the thing you should
be always thinking about is, does the person
representing you have empathy.
And why I think about empathy so much in this business
is my strategy would be like hey my man
we need to meet everybody that gives a shit about the Mets
that matters in New York, that can put you on,
whether that's advice, whether that's getting you
business opportunites, whether that's writing you
a $50,000 check when you're probably worth $1500 dollars
as a face of a marketing campaign because they can afford it
and they love the fuckin Mets.
Let's do that.
On the flip side, the reason I said empathy is if he's like
man I'm just working on this third pitch, I don't like
being around people, I don't want to go do this.
I don't want people up in my, look,
you've gotta have empathy.
So I think for us uniquely, because of the marketing
machine, we definitely have to be smart and listen
carefully of who says they want that.
Who needs that.
- [AJ] If Derek Morgan is a vegan and I call a chicken wing
restaurant, I'm not going to bring that to Derek.
That's not authentic to him, he won't advertise
anything he won't put into his body.
- And that's why the agents are vulnerable.
The agents, the CA's, they've got six moves.
And you've got to fit into their moves.
They're gonna try to get you a sneaker deal, they're
gonna try to, they've got six moves and so what we're
trying to do is create a swiss army knife
instead of a hammer.
And then to be very frank, win on the
only thing you can win on which is, if he quit
tomorrow because he fell in love with yoga retreats
and that's his calling in life, be his homie for that too.
And I think that's why we're going to win ultimately,
because if you're in the business of the kid for life,
regardless, as long as they're not a complete piece of
crap and changed on you.
We spend so much time on okay he's from a small town,
what happens when he hits the big city.
We can afford to not be in the business of getting
the phone call at two in the morning.
So we don't need to be in that and we're generally not.
And the other thing is, you get your heart broken.
I already have, four seconds in the business
we signed a kid who then fired us before he went
to the league and I watched it and I'm heartbroken.
I love him, and so we want to be very thoughtful.
And so I think the way we're going to beat it,
but I think the most important thing for you from afar,
and I haven't done a lot of homework so I don't
want to bullshit but, squeeze it while you've got leverage.
Not a lot of human beings get to be the number one pick
of a team in New York, it's a real thing, it's really real.
Ya know what's funny?
And let me tell you something, it's not even like
a young or old, I respect that, and I don't know
and I'm sure he'll speak for himself,
I didn't understand either.
By the way, you don't even understand, I bet you
you don't even understand how lucky even are to be
a human being when the math is 400 trillion to 1.
How can you?
You're a human being.
It's what you know.
He can't feel what it feels like to only be able to throw
57 like the way I can feel it.
He just doesn't know what that feels like.
He did that when he was seven right?
The key is empathy, you're right, he doesn't.
And the same way that all of us sitting here can't.
You can't.
What you've got, you take for granted by the nature
of being a human being.
It's all of us around each other that see it
and so for me it's not about, I'm empathetic I love it.
I'm even more excited about the meeting based on
the way it's going but I have no interest in being like
hey listen to me kid, I fuckin made, that doesn't work.
The reason why so many kids resonate with me and why I
have 2 million followers on instagram, is I went to USC
football team and spoke to the football team and was like
yo, for 91 percent of you, this is the greatest year
of your life.
And cause it's true.
It's not cause I'm cool or cause I came in with swag.
It's cause it's true.
Go look at every fucking person that was drafted in
the first round of major league baseball and look at what's
happened.
Lot of good, cause there's a lot of fucking talent there.
But a lot more bad than you would think just
cause it's life.
The truth, right?
So for me it's super compounded because of the local
kid and how big the money is in New York.
If you were the first pick overall for The Royals,
off the field money is different than being
a first round pick for the Mets in New York as a local
kid and all the advantages you have.
That's something you need to debate and it's hard
because it's a counter-pull from what question
you should be focused on, just being a great fuckin...
Like I get it right?
That makes sense.
So finding that right balance I think is super hard
and a challenge but super important because it becomes,
I spend a lot of time with kids that just regret.
And just regret, regret, regret right?
I grew up like a lot of people, which is like fuck man,
I was real sad around third or fourth grade when I realized
it wasn't gonna happen, ya know?
We all grow up wanting to do what you do
but now that I'm a 41 year old man and now that
entrepreneurship is so cool it's even easier to say
fuck, thank God I wasn't an athlete.
It's over when you're 30, ya know for a lot of them.
I think about running Curtis Martin, ya know running backs
at 28 years old running back, your finished?
I mean what the fuck, you're a kid right?
We've lived it right?
We've been 28, so I think it's just all those feelings,
all those thoughts and I think it's the balance
of following your intuition and your gut even
when you're so lucky to have good voices around you
pulling super hard on like doing what you want to do
and believing and that's real.
In parallel, in opposite direction of listening
to everything and filtering it.
Not saying no to anything upfront just so you hear it,
and then you being the filter.
Too many kids just say no upfront cause it's from their Dad,
it's from somebody else and it's like fuck you I'm not
gonna be like you I'm gonna fuckin make, all that shit.
So many people just don't even hear it.
The key, the only piece of advice is hear it
and then make your decisions.
Not for anybody but yourself, not for that man, not for her,
not for nobody, for you.
That's how you win, that's how there's no resentment,
that's how it's real family all the way through.
I think people break on both parts,
they don't hear every, they don't listen to everything.
You should listen to everything and they do make
decisions for other people besides themselves,
and those two macro vulnerabilities to me are,
is really my anchor advice and squeeze the shit
out of your situation cause it's an opportunity.
- I had a conversation with his agent, I told his agent
this, and I told him to watch you.
I said you guys got to get this because if you don't
the industry's gonna go this way, I just have that feeling
about what you're doing.
And I look at his opportunities in this city,
who he is, and he has the same feeling that you have
with your success and where you're going, he's the same way.
- And you know what's crazy for me?
Unless I have a terminal disease, I should be good.
He doesn't.
I've become real empathetic to that.
I literally sleep every night and hope I don't die,
hope I'm not sick, hope nobody I care about is sick
cause that's my only kryptonite.
Especially now, it's over other than something tragic
right to the seven people I give a fuck about
which will slow me down for a year or me,
which would slow me down completely.
You could throw one pitch, and that's scary as fuck man.
I don't envy, and I respect the shit out of
the psychology of that which then creates even a greater
sense of urgency for me of like hey be thoughtful
of how you want to do this.
At the same token, putting your face out, putting
yourself out there and doing things.
That's a DNA thing, not everybody's an extrovert.
Not everybody likes it, not everybody wants to sellout.
- I don't want to go on stage or anything like that
so DNA matters too.
- And when you force kids, so I think it's being thoughtful.
My big thing is reverse engineering.
Dissect the shit, if we started a baseball division
and he was first, dissect the shit, have real talk.
Be like, I don't want you to do shit, I just want
to deliver them what you want me to do.
And if you want to get a deal with Kit the brand
versus this or if you want to fuckin, you tell me.
You want to do a deal with Bape cause you think it's
cool great, let's reverse engineer it and if you don't,
if it's just money and you don't give a shit about
which bottled water, it's just money,
which I have empathy for, I would do that with things
that I don't care about, that I'm not against.
You may not drink alcohol and there's rules and all that.
You may not drink bottled water and you don't
want to do it cause that's how you roll, mazel tov.
Just figuring it out and reverse engineering and
creating avenues.
- I think that's something that him and we were
down by Bape and down by Kit and these guys
support Jordan to the nth degree.
Its, ya know is he in position now to make
those kind of deals.
- He's in position now to make those kind of deals
with the people that become Bape before they're Bape.
- I think he is, I think if you're a New York, again
I'm making way too many assumptions just on
the clothes he's wearing and the vibe.
Yes, I think there are deals, we've already quickly
made a name for ourselves for getting dollars
in places that people don't think they are.
Whether off of my equity or just being
strategically smart.
Five minutes.
Can't?
Gotta go?
We're hurting?
Fuck okay, two minutes.
I would reverse engineers Queens, Base, Mets, there's
a lot of smart things that could be done so I think
the answer is yes but I don't think Adidas is
signing him to a Yeezy deal right?
So it's just being realistic, finding interests,
and it's all about finding opportunities.
Finding startups that are sitting with more money
than they know what to do with and trying to
make a name for themselves in New York
and then compelling them to understand
that this is the guy.
And then it's finding the right partners.
We're producing content for Postmates and things
of that nature, and AJ can walk you through a little
bit more of that and I know you gotta go too.
So keep putting pressure on them to think about
it this way but the answer is whether it's too early
or too not, you don't get unless you ask.
And honestly, you don't strike me as man who needs to wait
or if that's appropriate you don't need to wait
for your agent, you just do your thing too.
- My agent wants to meet with you so I said to set
something up, and I heard that you are a card collector
so we bought you that one.
- That's what's up I appreciate it.
That's great, I appreciate that.
Can I have the case?
Hell yeah, I don't want to bend this stuff.
Ultra-pro is still around?
Jesus Christ.
This is when I started my business.
Listen, we had a lot of conversations about a lot of things,
I didn't take this meeting just for kicks and giggles
I really wanted to meet and say hello and say what's up
and see where the paths lead.
Feel free to reach out anytime, and I will meet that guy.
Feel free to set that up, and I wish you success.
- Thank you, appreciate it.
- My man.
Good luck to you.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, good luck, such a pleasure.
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Fun fact, coffee in Australia is just fuckin good.
I'll see you soon, leave a comment, please leave
me a comment of your favorite young athlete.
That's what I want to see in the Youtube comments.
Let's make this a little more interactive, a little
more fun, thank you so much for watching the fuckin vlog.