Nostalgia is underpriced. That’s my biggest thesis. Whether you are a rapper, or an entrepreneur or anyone in culture who has attention, the biggest opportunity is bringing what used to be cool, back.
Ask yourself: What used to be cool when you were growing up? What products, brands, ideas, sneakers, clothing, food was that “thing” in culture. What did you grow up wearing, what did you grow up eating? What brands did you really love, that you would be willing to revitalize through whatever your “machine” is in society, be that music, or entrepreneurship or athleticism and make it cool again. That’s where the opportunity is.
The reason I’m building VaynerMedia is so that I can buy old brands and run them through my “culture machine” and turn a 150M dollar business into 1BN company through the same tactics of reverse engineering consumer attention and understanding how to make products and ideas relevant to the end consumer.
Plain and simple, the leverage is going to be with the people who have the attention. The reason I was so pumped to sit down with Jeezy was because he has “it.” He has the attention and the pulse of culture and even more importantly, he views the world not only as an artist, but as an entrepreneur who is about to do something big.
All the leverage, and I mean all the leverage, is coming to the people with the attention because the internet became the middleman. Now you don’t need the help of Walmart or Target or Best Buy to put you on. You can make a product and go direct to consumer if you have the audience. You can disrupt the whole game if you just understand the reality of how we communicate and purchase and connect on these new platforms.
That’s why there’s so much opportunity. If you can build the leverage and the influence and the network, and you’re willing to keep playing the game for the next 40 years and continue building, then you will win. The greatest thing about business is that while athletes get slower, entrepreneurs get smarter. If you actually have the tentacles (i.e the reach and impact) in your genre, then you have real potential to win.
And the biggest thing to realize is that you don’t have to do it alone. There are plenty of other wealthy individuals who have either capital, awareness, or both, that can help. You don’t have to own the whole thing. You can own 20% with 8 other homies and still make a killing. You don’t make “real” economics from Instagram posts. You make real economics from building businesses and creating an arbitrage around your thing.
I hope this episode illuminates something for you and I’m excited to see where Jeezy takes his legacy next.
Thanks for reading
