This is Ward from
London with one question. How much of the success of being
VaynerMedia do you think is down to the brand GaryVee? I think GaryVee might be the
best content marketing strategy in history so how much of the success of VaynerMedia
is down to that? What if GaryVee the brand was
not there and what if GaryVee was just running VaynerMedia
without producing any GaryVee content out there? So thank you.
– That’s a good question. Ward, I think he answer is both. I think I have the luxury of
proof being in the pudding as a 22-year-old in a five year
period, I grew a business from 3 to 65 million
in the old world. No capital, no real internet at
scale and so I’m proud that if Gary Vaynerchuk CEO not
out in the ecosystem started VaynerMedia seven years ago you
know it would be successful and the truth is of course it would
be because really here’s the punchline Ward nobody in
corporate America, Pepsi Campbells, the NHL, none of our earliest clients
gave a shit about me. You know what? 99% of my clients don’t now. Now, that would be naïve to not
understand that over the half decade that I’ve been really
running the company, first two years I was somewhat involved,
sales, mentorship with AJ and I was involved but I’m full pledge is what
I do for living now. GaryVee is this is my
side hustle, right. I think that
there’s been benefits. You know people walk in here. I can think of a brand we just
won that there’s the truth is it’s because of the
GaryVee stuff and so I think the answer’s both and I think
that’s what’s really cool. I think one day people will realize how much
I like to hedge. I think of it as a hedge like both matter they
help each other. One’s there if the
others not there. It’s kind of a little
bit of immigrant in me. For somebody who’s so on
the offense I’ve a lot of conservativeness and
practicality that is the foundation of what I do and
I think brings a lot of value to a lot of people watching if
they can get through the layers. And so, the answer is both. It’s a really smart question. I think many people
have done both. Plenty of people have done a lot
of business on the back of their brand when they
entered it. Right? Plenty of restaurants that
are named after famous, millions of things. Just clothing lines, unlimited
and many people are just unknown assassins. Met with a guy the other day he’s built two $400
million businesses. Never heard of them in my
entire life nor have you. You can’t even find anything
about him and you know they have the humility and the kind of
personality that allows that. And so everything works,
not everything works for you. Plenty of people built huge
agencies not being known, just operators and there’s been agencies built on the
backbone of individuals. P Diddy’s agency is P Diddy
and great people that he hired underneath but it
wouldn’t have been there.

You run a $100 million
revenue company. How do you stay hungry? – Period. Betty, I think that truth is I think a lot of
us are hardwired. I think because
I didn’t come from much, because I didn’t
speak the language, because I wasn’t
physically large. I actually think that’s
a dude thing for sure. And because I think I’m
wired to love underdogs. I’ve always loved them. I think where I’ve come from,
there is no I’ve never made it. First of all, I don’t
like the physical things. That’s a huge advantage. Not needing to buy a plane
or an $8000 pair sneakers. There’s no
physical thing I want. Just like the awesome Instagram
photo that Tyler you put together of the game
(bell chimes) I love the process.
I’m hungry forever. I’m the hungriest. I’m super hungry. I threw up this morning and I’m
theoretically physically I’m not hungry right now ’cause I’m
feeling a little woozy but emotionally as an
entrepreneur, I’m the hungriest. It’s incredible. I’m dramatically more successful
than I was 10 years ago, I’m more hungry not less. – Because? – Because I just think it
was hardwired from the get. ‘Cause I just think
it’s black and white. I just think at some level you’re just wired
the way you are. There is nothing that’s gonna
fill my appetite because what drives my hunger is the process
not the results and then by nature in that
construct it goes forever. The only thing that changes my
hunger is if is if the two other most important variables in this
game play themselves out: the health and well-being of my
family or the way I feel about the allocation of my time and the depth of that
time with my family. Those are the only
vulnerabilities. There’s no $14 million check or $48 billion check
or buying the Jets. There’s nothing
that will stop the hunger. When I put my jersey on, when
I’m in the context of being a businessman, the hungry
vibe will be there forever. It’s when I’m Gary as a person
where there’s other things in my life besides being on the field
that could play out that could get me to be less
hungry professionally. But on the field, I’m going to be a psycho through
and through forever. – Like it.
– That’s it.

It’s your boy Zain coming from
Sydney, Australia and welcome to the show, ET. I believe this is a huge issue
for a lot of people in life and my question is where does where does motivation stop
and execution begin? I want to take this opportunity
to thank you both for being huge influences in my life and I can
proudly say that I wouldn’t be the man I am today if
it wasn’t for you two. – That’s very nice.
– I appreciate that, man. – Z-squared I’ll tell you that,
the amount of people that come in and write notes all day,
little notebooks of motivation, spend ungodly amount of hours, the amount of hours that we’ve spent watching
each other’s stuff, I don’t want to speak for you but my gut is zero.
Zero full hours. – He said it. – You know, I don’t know,
I don’t know but here’s what I can tell you some
people need to be motivated. For me, I didn’t. I got a chip on my shoulder and
that thing will drive me until the day I’m in the ground. I’m so motivated it’s
coming out of my face. So I don’t need that. So I can’t speak for everybody, everybody’s got
different versions. But here’s what I can tell you
there’s a sign in here that is driving everybody crazy. It’s been brought up like
four times in the last week. It says, “Ideas are shit.” It hangs in our office and it’s
driving crazy and the reason I don’t finish my statement in that sign is I want people to think. ‘Cause the sign actually reads
if it was in full entirety, “Ideas are shit
until you execute them.” Where does
motivation stop and start? Everybody’s got a different
answer but here’s what I can tell you; It’s really easy to be
motivated either you’ve got it or you can watch it. It’s really hard to execute. It is the variable
that separates people. People are always gonna tell me
every day, every day I roll up on people they’re like yo,
I’m gonna buy the Seahawks and you’re gonna buy the
Jets and I’m like great. Can’t wait to see you. People are always telling me
that going to do this, this and this and that and you know what
I do, I don’t know if you do this I ask a lots of them to
email me in 60 days, in 90 days in a year and you
know how many do? Goose egg. (clicks tongue)
People talk shit. And I don’t know where it stops
or starts but I know that most of you, 99% of you aren’t going to do anything about it
and that sucks. – I’m with Gary, inhale, exhale
it’s like asking me which one is which, I don’t know
which one is which. When you inhale, you exhale. I don’t know which ones first
which one is second but you’re not executing
you’re not motivational. I don’t know what the other
stuff is you’re doing but real motivation I don’t know which
one comes first but it makes you do something. If you’re not doing anything
you’re not really motivated. – Do you think it’s a
little bit Star Wars like? I just went somewhere weird. I’m sitting here I’m like you
know, the truth is don’t you think motivation comes
a little bit from a little bit of darkness? This is my point, this is fun
to do this in his room and I’ve been talking to a bunch of
female entrepreneurs the other day and some
leaders in my company. There’s a lot of
mixed genders in here. And again, I’m so scared to go
here because I understand where I’m going I don’t know, I think having,
being a minority, being an underdog
is an advantage. I can’t not believe that. I genuinely believe
I’m making this for my son, Xander, I think you’re soft. I think you’re watching this
right now, six years now I think you’re gonna text me in
a few minutes and be like “Yo, I’m going to kill you,”
which I hope because I hope you have that in you but the truth is, I just believe
that Andy’s in a disadvantage. I just genuinely believe that. I don’t know how else to say it? Now, by the way,
that’s me stereotyping. If Andy’s lucky to be motivated,
something bad happened, I don’t know his dynamic with
his brother but I think being a younger brother’s a
great one, right? Show me a kid who walks in here and says, I’m like
what’s your story? Well, I grew up super rich
and white and it’s awesome. I’m like keep going, they’re
like well my older brother was a star football
player and I wasn’t. I’m like okay now right
I’m like show me something. – Absolutely. – I think, I think a lot of you
are not motivated because you’re lucky and what I mean by that is
you’re lucky in different ways. You haven’t dealt with adversity
that much and by the way it’s not a black-and-white
thing, girl-boy thing– – Absolutely, absolutely.
– you just had great parents. You had a good upbringing. Life just didn’t give you that
much adversity and so, I don’t know,
I want to slice throats. – Yeah. – Like I don’t know.
My stuff is super evil. I’m being really honest
with you guys today. I go to the conference
everybody’s in the green room friends, friends. I’m like I’m gonna
slice your throat. – No question. – You’re gonna go up there
and people are gonna clap. I’m gonna up there and
people are gonna hate you after. They’ll be like why did I even
clap for the guy before me. That’s what’s
going through my mind. – No question.
– It’s just not a nice thing. – Yeah, no question. – Do you know why people
hate when I have guests on? It just happened right now.
I interrupt. – You’re supposed to, Gary.
– I can’t help it. – You’re ready to go. I was an was gonna say for
me, everybody’s like you’re so engaged with your son,
you’re so engaged your daughter. That’s because my
father wasn’t there. I’m not a good father. I just didn’t have my father so every day I wake
up that drives me. I’m not gonna be him. Every time I get on the mic it’s
like my people didn’t take all of us talk
nobody’s taking action. So I’m with you
it’s the dark side. It’s the I didn’t have,
I ate out of trash cans. I told the kids yesterday with
the NBA I said look everybody can get but can you keep. So, for me, I say I’m not into
money I just don’t want to go back to being homeless. I don’t want to each
out of trash cans again. I don’t want to sleep
in abandoned buildings. It’s the darkness that
gets me up and drives me. – I genuinely believe the
worst thing in life is to be somewhere, grow and
then go backwards. Now, I’m weird because I’m
also weirdly romantic to it. That Rocky where he
loses everything, he’s back. There’s a part of me was always
like, ooh, if I lose everything but then I’ll rise back and then I’ll realize who my
real friends were. Andy will not want to
be my friend any more. Good, when I rise back,
I’ll be like fuck you. – Andy will be there.
– You think so? – I think so. – Let’s go to the next one.
– Andy, you owe him. – [Voiceover] Aaron Perez asks,
“En route to self-awareness,

“would you contribute of where
you are today your degree?” – Absolutely zero. Zero. I didn’t get the
PhD for success. I got a PhD for the patience. I got the PhD for the process. – When did you get a PhD?
– Last year, May. – Did you think you,
you know what this is a real good opportunity. On a real serious kick, I think
what makes this show good is I’m super not scared.
Talk me through the PhD. Did you feel like that that
was a smart strategic thing to create a little more air cover
so that you had more room to do your thing. For real, for real? – For me Gary, I was trying to
and when I first walked in you talked about business.
– Yep. – And I told you
I build people– – Yes. – but building people
doesn’t always pay well. – I understand. – So I had to put myself
in a different market,– – I understand. – then what I originally wanted
to be when I started, right? – Yeah, yeah. – But what happens when you’re
from Detroit, like I am, one of the most segregated cities
United States of America, I did not have the code, the language
or the rules to get in the game that I wanted to play in.
– That’s right. – So for me Michigan State gave
me that opportunity to go to class and hear that language. To get in an environment
for six years and be a part of the rules. So, you can’t play the game
if you don’t know the game. So, the degree to me was about, it doesn’t make
Detroit bad. It doesn’t make my community
bad, but there’s some things I need to operate on this level. – It’s interesting
you even went there. I’m so fascinated
that you said that. I’m fascinated that in your
mind, it processed that this thing could be a counter move
to making that thing look bad. It’s actually a massive insight that people
grossly underestimate. It’s a thing that I grew up with
in a different way, you know, I came to this country because Jews were persecuted
the Soviet Union. My parents and grandparents grew
up in an environment where they were blamed for the world war. My grandparents, both
my grandfathers went to jail for being Jewish. And I think that people don’t
understand that being a minority somewhere, Jewish in Europe,
African-American in America, there’s a psyche that people
don’t understand which is you hear, you hear us white guys
here hear selling out, you know, Uncle Tom getting away from, it’s so much deeper
than you think. – So much deeper. – Let me tell you where I’m
going with it, I’m actually going a very left turn on this, most of you are so molded by your parents you can’t even
wrap your head around it. And there’re certain things your
parents put in you, that you were scared to break against
because you don’t want to let them down even though you might hate your parent or
what have you. It’s unbelievable to
me that you went there. That the success of PhD had to be hedged in
your mind through your word that that’s
not bad on Detroit. – Nuh-uh. – That to me is such an
insight that we need to have a conversation in general about
people understanding that having something good happen,
doesn’t trigger a negative event somewhere else and that is
something we’re all dealing with in our own versions. – And so for me it was like, E,
if you can’t, if there’s certain arenas you can’t operate
on if you don’t know it. Can’t play football if you
don’t, here’s the thing I hate; okay, so what I do for a living
I hate Gary that a guy thinks he’s gonna do what I’ve done for
20-something years, he’s gonna watch my videos, he’s just
gonna do it for five months, five years and boom
he’s the next ET. – Wait a minute, ET, you mean
you can’t register Seven Figure Mastermind Instagram
account and become that? Yeah. – I mean it’s real.
– The realist. – I realized that, ET, you have
what you think is success but you get that PhD
you’re gonna understand it. It’s like another language, Gary, it’s like
another language. Like another world. – You like being a student?
– I love, I love it. Not reading but
I love being a student. – Yeah, it’s interesting,
I don’t like reading. – I don’t want people thinking
we’re contradicting ourselves. – Yeah, yeah, no. It’s interesting,
it’s interesting. Huh. I like that, okay.
What was a question? – [Andy] As a PhD
what percentage– – Got it.
– Oh, ok, zero. – Zero, okay good. Zero. – [Andy] Video question. It’s your boy Zain coming from
Sydney, Australia and

– [Voiceover] Chris asks, “How
many jobs have you had before “being super successful and
how has it helped you now?” – My first job was a janitor. – Where were you born?
– 1996 November 13. Get the fuck out of here.
Stop. – November 14th.
– What? – Yep. I was married
on November 13th. – What?
– Yep. Yep. Interesting. November 13, 1996.
– 1986. – ’86–
– ’86. – oh, thank God. Thank God, I feel way better. ’86. I was like ’96
he looked so good. I was like ’86, good that was
right before AJ was born so I was getting super pumped for
my birthday and the last one without my little bro.
– That’s insane. – Awesome. What we’re
talking about again? I got so excited. – First job.
First job. – First job. So you were a janitor,
but where you born? – In Puerto Rico. – Right and how old were
you when you came here? – 16. – Great so you come
here at 16– – At Fort Lauderdale
to Florida– – Okay. – and I worked as a janitor at
nights at a community college and I want your
Hollister during the day. They never even put
it on the floor. I was in the stock room putting
on sensors on the shirts. – Nice.
– But you know,– – And then what? – And then I became, I worked at a film school working on the rental departments putting all,
getting the gear out and putting it back in and organizing
and putting that all together. You’ve done that? – [Staphon] Yeah.
(laughter) – But it’s amazing.
– Yeah, Staphon. – I’ll tell you something
a job never defined me. I thought I always, I understood
what I was doing it and I always try to make it, when I was
when I was cleaning bathrooms– – You made it fun?
– Yes. I was caught dancing with my
broom at seven o’clock at night. People would tell me you’re the
happiest janitor I’ve ever seen. But, you know, it actually
allowed me to do something. – What did you do
right before real estate? – Film directing.
But that wasn’t a job. – Oh wait, wait, wait I also
saw this clip I mean it Lizzie watches this all the time so
it’s in the background you had some crazy success
you had weird hair– – Yes. – and you had a
successful thing happen. – Yeah, I was until I did a film
that to me it was not a disaster it was a disaster because
I wasn’t able to understand storytelling too well so
the picture looks amazing. Great cinematography
but there was no– – No soul? – I couldn’t tell a story well
so you could see people having a conversation but there
was no soul behind it. – Mhmmm.
– I was too young to do it. I was 19 and I got very
frustrated that’s how it started in the, that’s a
longer story but– – We need to
figure out that story. That’s it? – [India] That’s
all the questions.

– [Voiceover] Nice Tat Co. asks, “What’s your ‘major key’?” – What’s my major key? – I got the reference.
– Yes, yes. (laughter) I think my major key is,
you know, only doing the things that make you happy. I think you can only, I think when you’re happy,
you’re creative. When you’re
creative you produce. When you produce
you see results. When you see results
you do it over again. Most people think they’re not
creative or they don’t have the ability to create,
that is not true. I think everybody has the
ability to be great and they just may not know it yet. But I think that when they are
in position when they’re happy, like authentically happy, they
can build things that he never thought they could so I
think that’s would be my key. – My major key you brought up
earlier which is why a lot of my team smiled. I think self-awareness
is the key. – Self-awareness. – Because I think it similar to,
you know it’s funny, you also said something that I push
against a little bit which is being great is an
interesting definition. Depends on how one defines it. I believe that anybody can be
the best version of themselves if they can find the thing that
they were naturally meant to do that’s the best in them.
Right? And I do think that, I
think self-awareness is just– – And that comes from getting to
know yourself and spending time to understand yourself. You know, it allows you to be more convicted about
certain things. – It’s funny, for me I never,
I’m almost feel like I’m meditating in
parallel with my speed. – Okay.
– I’ve never– – I like that actually. – I feel like I’m
doing it in parallel. – I love that.
– You like that? – I think I do it too
and I never realized it. – Yeah. What I haven’t done and I’d like
to do is a 26 day trip to think about it but, to me,
I do it in parallel. – Yes. – I’m in motion and
reflective at all times. – Yes, yes, I love that. Is there a term, have you
come up with a term for that? – I think it’s Vaynerism.
– Parallel meditating? – I don’t know.
There probably is. I’m so under, I’m such an F
student people are just laughing right now. They’re like no
you mean “bajuga”? Yeah, of course. – I actually like that.
– That’s what I do. That is literally what I do. I’m basically auditing in
real time, it’s a matrix as I’m moving fast as shit. – But you’re always meditating
for the rest of my life. – For the rest of my life
that’s why I’m so happy. – Yes, that’s why you
evolve so fast. That’s why, I’m
pulling opposite directions. – But everything (inaudible)
everything, ah, I love it. I love it. (laughter)
I love it.

“18 hours a day? “In episode 215, you said that
putting in the time does not “mean you will be successful. “I’m confused,
should I give up?” – Ethan? Ethan, it works both ways. Here’s my point about hard work,
it’s a great opportunity to great way to be in this spot
as we move to the next office. Hard work really matters but
let’s talk about it both ways. Yes, in episode 215 or
wherever I said it that if you put in 18 hours a day and
you don’t have talent you will not get results. If you put in nine hours a day
and you’re loaded with talent in whatever you’re doing
you’ll get results. It’s this cross-section of
work ethic and talent. They both matter. People get so mad when
I talk about talent. We had a hold Krewella episode
where it was like that whole debate and in the comments a
bunch of you losers, yep, losers were like, “No, you can make it
happen if you work hard enough.” That is just not true. Stand up everybody in the
comment section if you worked very hard for three, four, five,
six, seven years at something and you didn’t get the greatest
results of all time and have a white picket fence
and hit the Hall of Fame. It happens every day. But talent is not something that
you, watching this right now, can go home and say I’m going to
muster up more talent in art, in business, in sports. You can’t do that. But work ethic you can. And so I push work ethic because
I believe it’s a variable and I believe it’s far
more controllable. I do believe that you can cut
out leisure, change your mindset and put in the work. I do not believe the
automatically can become an unbelievably millionaire status
world-class in what you do. Do I think you can become
a better editor if you do it bunch?
Sure do. Do you think I better at
tennis if you play it a lot? Yes, I do. Do I think that means that
you could be on the tour? No, I do not. – [India] Next question.

“from scratch, what metrics
would you look “at to determine success?” – Uh, if you’re starting
from scratch, what metrics would you look
at in measuring success? – [India] Yes. – Money in and profit post money in. And I’m actually making a
joke but I’m being serious. It’s so funny, I just
had a business meeting. I think a lot of people have metrics for the sake of metrics. Marketing for the
sake of marketing. If you have a business
the only metric that you should be
paying attention to is your top line revenue
and your profit at the end of the day
that can afford to pay your costs that
are driving your business. Now, if you’re very,
very early on, you want to see traction. But I think the reason I’m
jumping on this question is we now live in a
culture where so many people think the following, which is they’ve been
affected by Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
and Snapchat. If you get tens of
millions of followers it doesn’t matter that
you don’t make money. You eventually
become a billionaire. The problem is that works
for seven companies. That is not the norm. Most people try to, and this is what’s
going to happen over the next decade my friends, you will see, and over
the next three years, you will see an enormous
amount of companies that went and tried to
get 10,000, 100,000, a million users, didn’t get there, weren’t the hot product,
the unicorn, the once in a
generation business. The once in a
generation business. And they ran out of money. And then you go out of business. So what I really want
to ground this first question in, in practicality. The only metric a business person should be understanding
is their cash flow. Money in, money out. How do you build momentum? Is it heading in the right direction? I’m very proud that AJ
and I and the senior leadership that helped
us along the way, we built an actual business here. VaynerMedia wasn’t a valuation. VaynerMedia is
revenue and profit. And I do think that
we have gotten way too into
users and mentions, and the one that
bothers me the most, number of followers, and we’ve got away from
what are you doing? Do you know how many people
have come up to me and they’re like, yeah I’m struggling, and they’re like this is
actually, DRock you were with me, it really hit me during
that one kid coming up to me in Colorado, and I don’t
want to pick on the kid, but like everybody thinks
that amassing a following on social media is a business. Amassing a following on
social media is a platform for you to create
a business on top of. A business, is a functioning
organization that sells something that
you make profit in so you can sustain
that business and grow (snap)

People, organizations you
won’t work with for whatever reason? – That’s an interesting question. You know and actually, one thing I promised myself
on my comeback trail, here in episode 216 is I’m
gonna answer these questions not just kind of
literally, black and white, but I’m gonna really
challenge myself. I think the golden
eras of the show was when I could
answer the question, but also then know how to bring
value to the whole audience and I, right off the bat,
came in hot, I’m excited. Which is, I don’t and
now let’s talk about it. I truly believe that
anybody who has a shit list has a vulnerability. Because when you’re
using negativity to drive your success,
I think that’s a problem. To me, spending
any energy and time, with a list of people I don’t
wanna do business with or put out of business, or
negative, or like people that got me and
I’m gonna get them back, I think is insane. It’s stunning to me, looking
back at my 20 year career. There was a guy that I went
to a wine tasting of, went to the wine tasting in
New York City at the Hilton. The Wine Spectator
National Wine Tasting, all the best wineries are there. I came in, and I come,
and I go to this winery, and they have this great
Shiraz, Australian wines are getting super hot, and I’m
like selling a lot of them, more than anybody
in the country. And I come and I’d like
to taste your wine, thinking this guy was
going to react really well because we sold a ton of it. He goes into a curse
laden, I’m a piece of crap. And I’ve never lad this
happen to me in life. Like just drilled me. You’re the devil of the
industry, I hate you. Like nasty, nasty, nasty stuff. And it was because
I was selling his wine at the most aggressive
price in the country and he thought
I was killing his brand, meanwhile, there were 30
other stores selling it for that price, but he hadn’t
been on top of technology yet and didn’t know there was
a site called Wine-Searcher that allowed you to see
every price on the internet, and I was just matching the
best price in the country. But because I was
the biggest guy, when I emailed it
and promoted it, all the other stores that
were selling it for more called and complained. He did no homework,
he was immature, he was very hot at the time so
he had the audacity and ego. Needless to say, the
Australian wines got less hot, over the next five years,
and then that coincided with Wine Library TV’s explosion, and then this guy who said I
was the devil of the industry and the worst piece of
crap, and a loser kid and was never going
to amount to anything, emailed me, five years
later, begging for me to be on the show for
exposure for his wine. And with no hesitation
I said yes. I believe being the bigger man. I believe not holding grudges. I believe that one of the
reasons I’m successful in life, let alone business is I don’t
allow poison or negativity to be stored within my confines, and I think it’s a very big thing. I’ve been talking a
lot more about optimism and positivity being
a real factor, I’m starting to get
a little more zen in my older age, and
I believe that if you have a shit list, if you have a list, if you hold a grudge, you’re
coming at your own expense. That you’re not doing
anything, do I forget? No. But it’s just context,
it doesn’t mean I’m going to get you with it, it just
means I have to navigate around it, and that’s
a very big difference. I don’t wanna stick it to you. I just need to navigate
around your truth and there might be
some negativity there, and I wanna get around it. I don’t wanna walk into your
cancer over and over again, punch in the face either. So, I would highly
recommend for all of you, If I can do anything
with this episode, if this becomes the
moment in your life where you stop thinking
having a shit list. By the way, so many people
in my family love that. They love the grudge list,
Eastern European old school, we’re gonna get them,
we’re gonna stick it to them in the end. I think the positivity
and the winning. I think nothing sticks it to
anybody better than results. Instead of tearing them down, just get so God damned big
that that’s the ultimate I got you back. And that comes
through positivity.

– [Voiceover] Chris asks,
“How do you girls stay so “grounded in a fake world?” – In a fake world? – Why does the
world got to be fake? – The people I surround
myself with aren’t fake. – Yeah, same. – And who says you
guys are grounded? (laughter) – Exactly.
– We might be batshit crazy, you just don’t know. If I were to answer that
question I was also say family. We are family for each other
obviously we’re sisters and we’re very close with our family and
nothing happens that doesn’t slide by our our dad or our mom
and they keep us in check and we keep each other in check. – And also not feeling entitled. I think that’s something we
really surrounded by especially in the dance music realm
there so many DJs who have this entitled aura and you could
see it online and in person. – There’s so much subtext
what you’re saying right now. – There’s like this hierarchy of
what kind of value bring and why that’s more valuable than other
careers or other realms in art. I think that’s what, even the
first question when you’re saying what made you pop off.
– Yeah. – I’ve actually never
felt like we popped off. I never really felt
that we made it. I think the day I really feel
Krewella made it is when I’m going to lose that hunger and
I think we have to constantly remind ourselves to understand
our value and our worth and to acknowledge our achievements
as artist but not to let that hinder us from having that
hunger to work every day, to go to the studio every day, to say
yes to opportunities because the second you start
saying, “Oh no, I’m good.” – “We made it.”
– Exactly. – Or “I’m too good.”
– Yeah. – What do you think?
– For them? – Or about the game? Where do you think, while
I’ve got you for another second, where is the current state
of EDM in your guy’s opinion? Obviously it was a that space,
I don’t know, eight years ago, nine years ago most people
didn’t know about. I still think there’s a lot of people who
are watching who are 40, 50-year-old marketing dudes that
have no idea what this space is and they’re going to Google it.
But obviously when you start talking to a 35 and under demo in
America and obviously in Europe and other places it’s been huge,
everybody at this point already knows that it’s so
interesting to watch. It is really to me the thing
that is most followed hip hop as a new genre that
didn’t really exist before. I’m curious for you guys who
are much closer to it, where is it in it’s lifecycle? Just starting, hitting
an interesting time? It’s become dramatically more
mainstream than it was five, six years ago. What is your
point of view on it? – I think it has plateaued. I think it’s hit the climax–
– Okay. – I don’t think it’s
going anywhere, anytime soon. It just branched off in so
many different directions. There’s so many
different sub-genres. There’s new artist coming
through every day. Guys likes Skrillex and
Diplo are doing a great job of cosigning younger talent,
bringing them up through the system and there’s the
difference between it now and what it was 15 years ago was how
much corporate backing it gets. You see with the brands
you work with all the time and how badly they want to be
involved with these entities and the biggest throwers of
festivals in the world, these biggest entertainment companies
in the world have put so much money into making sure that
it’s going to stay where it is. Keep going with it.
– Ladies? – It’s hard for me to comment
on this because I do feel like we’ve never quite
belonged in the EDM world– – Okay. – and so it’s hard for me to
look at us as even still a part of it even though I know it’s
kinda one foot in the door, one out for us.
– Okay. – We’ve always tried to maintain
our own lane while still, again, keeping one foot
in the EDM world. – I understand. – I think that that’s probably a
good thing for us because like Jake said, I agree, I think it
has plateaued and we have this amazing opportunity to take
ourselves on a completely different lane and
pave our own way. – Do our own thing.
– Yeah, it’s cool. – I just think a lot of what
were talking about when you’re talking about depression with a
lot of young entrepreneurs– – Yes. – maybe feeling let down that
they can’t really achieve the success that they been hyped up
to achieve, what do you think our society being a more and more
fame obsessed society has to do with that especially
with social media? – Yeah, I think the whole 15
minutes of fame has become everybody is
famous to 15 people. You got an entire generation of
young teens right now that take 45 minutes and take a selfie
’cause they want to get the lighting right and post on
Instagram if it doesn’t get enough likes they
take it down right away. Peer pressure, I’ve never
been more obsessed with this. I have a seven and a
four-year-old, instilling self-esteem in to them is
everything because they’re going to need it really, really big.
– Yeah. – Because the market’s gonna push back on every
one of their flaws. Yeah, I think we’re living
through a really, really interesting time.
I really do. I think there a lot of
things happening at once. This is not a very simple issue
where it’s like social media. I think parents, I’m 40, parents
of my generation that grew up during great times, you know
we’re not our parents or our grandparents, great-grandparents
generation where they fought wars and the Depression
and things of that nature. We’ve had so much prosperity
that I think if you look at every empire that when things
are good for too long people become soft. And I think that’s
what’s happening. I think we’re soft. And I think, you know, coming from an immigrant
DNA, like you guys, it’s easier for me to see it. I just think we’re soft and
I think that and I think that I don’t want to add to it. As a very positive optimistic
rah-rah, crush it, anybody can do it guy I want to also at
least have the other part of the equation which is of course hard
work, of course talent and of course look there’s so much
going on in the world right now. I think we’re all sensitive to
a lot of different things that are happening. You never know when
prosperity can end. It ends in a blink. I’m thankful for
the way that it is. I do not think kids being stuck
in their cell phones all day is a bad thing. I don’t think
that’s a ruining them. I think technology is eating the
world and I think it’s going to be more of that. I think that when you guys first
started doing shows compared to now if you think about phone
usage at your shows when you guys are standing there, I’m
curious what you think about what’s going on down there
because that’s just their norm. – Mhmmm. – I love when people think, did
you guys see that picture of the 90-year-old woman that was in
the crowd when the Pope came and everybody took a photo she
didn’t and everybody made a big deal about that? You did. Did you see this?
– Yeah. – You did you see it?
You see it? So it’s a photo like six months
ago when the Pope came to the US I think that everybody made
a big deal about which is everybody taking a photo of it
she just standing, she’s like 90 and she just standing there and
everybody’s like she’s a hero and literally I take
a reverse view on it. I feel bad for her because she’s
old and she probably already forgot about that moment where
as everybody else recorded it. I know it’s a funny– – That’s age discrimination. – Of course it’s
age discrimination. I’m trying to make a zing
joke, I’m sure she remembers it. I have no idea who she is but
I think that change is tough. In the same way that, staying to
music, both hip hop and EDM, one foot in, one foot out both those
genres had nothing but haters in the beginning saying,
“That’s not real music.” – Mhmmm. – And I just don’t like when
people impose their thoughts. Just ’cause kids are
communicating this way doesn’t mean that
millennials are introverted. I love when all my old friends
and when I said old I mean 35-year-olds say these kids
can’t hold a real conversation because their having them here. Meanwhile these same kids spoke
to the same six people their entire childhood because
they didn’t have the outlet to different people,
different things. These kids are
much more worldly. They know a lot more and so
I don’t think anything is bad. I’m pretty much and
optimist that way. But I am worried about
depression because I do think way more scary to me than living
a public life and fame obsession is parents telling their kids
things that aren’t realistic. I do think that we have to train
our generation to deal with adversity and I don’t think
getting an eighth trophy, I do not if you come in fucking last
place that your team should be cheering and
celebrating and given trophies. They should be looked at like, “You guys
suck shit. You lost.” – Don’t you think that this–
– I do believe that’s healthy. – But the advice to the
entrepreneur to push through– – These guys are
going out of business. Do you understand
what’s going to happen? 99% of these– – So they move on
to the next one. – It’s not an
opportunity to get better? – Of course it is.
– Keep going. People out there, keep going. – Of course, keep going but if
you are not self-aware, if you kept rapping, my man,
you would not be as happy as you are today.
– Agreed. – So now go that tell them to keep going
when they’re delusional. – You’ll figure it out. – That was the moment.
That’s the bottom line. You understand? You guys keep
going, keep evolving– – Yes. – but blindly going that I’m
going to be Eminem isn’t gonna work. – But if you don’t do that,
you’ll never figure it out. If I hadn’t put all the time and
energy into that I wouldn’t have understood how to
market recording artist. – That’s a very different thing
then keep evolving and being self-aware and understanding
your strengths and weaknesses to create the next opportunity
versus what people normally hear when you hear keep going which
is if I just keep putting in more hours eventually
I’m gonna put out a song. (inaudible) You didn’t keep
putting out songs– – I did until something else
but if I hadn’t kept going, if I would’ve stopped those thousands
and thousands of times people told me I couldn’t do it. – But please understand in this
conversation when you look back at it you adjusted to a different
opportunity on those learnings. That’s not what people hear– – That’s keep going though. – by your definition but I’m
telling you right now that’s what would people hear. When people hear keep going they
think they’re going to break through on the thing, do you
know that everybody wants to be a famous singer, a famous
athlete and a famous actor and if that person keeps acting
instead of becoming a director which is maybe the skill set
they have they’re gonna lose. – I think what you’re saying
keep going but stay focused but be open to reinventing
yourself all along the way. – Be self-aware. It’s my favorite part of this. It’s what I jumped on earlier. If you actually know yourself
you can win so much more. Just this blind faith that
everybody’s entitled to this level of success is ludicrous. Because most people don’t want
to work hard enough, most people don’t have enough talent and the
math has proven that that’s not the case. The bottom of the 1%, the 1%
earners in America, the top 1% earners, the bottom of
that make $400,000 a year. If you go talk every 15 to
22-year-old, they don’t even conceive anything being
short of a millionaire, of making $1 million a year. But the data shows only 1% in our US society
make $400,000 or more and that makes
them one of the top 1%. We have not had the proper
conversation for every one of you guys, there are 50,000
groups that didn’t make it and it wasn’t because they
gave up one year too early. They just weren’t
talented enough. That’s what I believe.