0:00

Disney's successful because people love Mickey Mouse.

0:02

Star Wars is successful because people love

0:04

Luke Skywalker. We are on a journey

0:06

to make people fall in love with

0:09

our characters and if you can't do

0:11

that in cartoon or book or movie form,

0:13

you're in trouble. And so we have a

0:15

huge focus on that. But also I think

0:17

the most interesting thing that's happening in Be Friends now

0:19

is that the physical collectibles are

0:21

leading to a new era of

0:23

digital collectors. We have dozens of

0:26

examples internally that we're watching from people

0:28

that have discovered Be Friends from watching

0:30

us opening up trading cards on Fanatics

0:32

Live. Never knowing about Be Friends or

0:35

me. And three months later buying their first ever

0:37

NFT. Attention is

0:39

the number one asset. Thank you so much for

0:41

coming. Really appreciate it on

0:44

this beautiful day in L.A. VCon,

0:46

this is year three. First year

0:49

we did in Minnesota. Last year in Indianapolis. When

0:51

I launched Be Friends three years ago, it

0:54

was important that the digital collectible also had

0:56

a utility and the thing that most

0:58

of the market was asking for that

1:01

I felt in my community at the time was a business

1:03

conference and we wanted to have a take

1:06

on that. And it had been in my

1:08

mind for a long time. So, VCon was

1:10

so central to the Be Friends journey. When

1:13

I thought that through, the other thing

1:15

that was important to me was to learn

1:17

in the three year

1:19

window to set us up for

1:21

any future decisions we wanted to

1:23

make around events or conferences and

1:26

so this has always been a

1:28

really exciting part of that three year journey

1:31

because we knew that we would save the

1:33

big city for the third one. And we're

1:35

here and obviously in such

1:37

an iconic venue like L.A. Live we're

1:39

excited about it. The outdoor portion of

1:42

the events in

1:44

the first two years which would be on day one

1:46

were such big hits and so I'm excited that it

1:49

kind of spans all three days and I think our

1:51

lineup of speakers and

1:53

events kind of speaks for itself. So, we're excited

1:55

about it. I'm looking forward to that and it

1:58

means a lot to me that all of you are here. Andy? I'm

2:01

just super excited and honored to be

2:04

hosting VCon 3 in L.A. I

2:06

think that event has evolved every year and

2:08

I think we are about to put on

2:10

our best VCon yet. I'll set that one.

2:13

I think another thing to kind

2:15

of add is if you

2:17

look at the actual

2:19

content itself, I think there's

2:22

an incredible focus on macro and micro which

2:24

ironically is a V friend character. And

2:27

so I think you'll see a lot of people talking

2:29

about mindset and perspective and strategy. But

2:31

I also think there's a lot of panels

2:33

and individual talks that are going to go

2:35

into very hardcore tactical detail whether that's people

2:38

management in an organization or social

2:41

media marketing and everything in between.

2:43

And so another thing and

2:45

a theme to look out for.

2:48

We can open up for questions. If anybody has

2:50

anything specific, yes. Hello

2:55

guys. Thank you all for doing this. What's

2:59

your name, my man? My name is Nick

3:01

Hamilton. Nick. Pleasure. What's

3:03

asking both, you talked about Los Angeles

3:05

and Avenue 3rd Avenue. What was it

3:08

about Los Angeles that has developed your eyes

3:10

to say this is the time and place

3:12

where you can have VCon 3rd and 3rd

3:14

year here in Los Angeles downtown

3:16

L.A., L.A. I would actually argue

3:18

the reverse. I think L.A. is

3:20

way ahead of VCon. And so I think

3:23

for us it's we feel like we were

3:25

ready after a couple of reps to go

3:27

to a much bigger city. A

3:29

place where there's a lot of noise. I

3:32

mean this worked out perfectly. Literally Disney

3:34

is throwing its most significant conference this

3:36

weekend for its fan base. And so there's a

3:39

lot going on. I think

3:41

venue wise also, you know,

3:44

downtown L.A. for me personally

3:46

has been fun to watch over the last 20

3:48

years. You know, being here

3:50

20 years ago for different business reasons to

3:52

seeing what it is now has been an

3:55

incredible evolution and so I think

3:57

this is more about us growing into L.A. than

3:59

L.A. doing. doing anything that made us

4:01

consider it. What

4:05

I appreciate about the friends and

4:07

the economists, your ability to move,

4:10

like, how do you have

4:12

crystal ball about culture? So you

4:14

move because the few oceans, pain

4:16

parties in here, just your other

4:18

things. What,

4:21

how do you have that

4:23

seventh sense of feeling where

4:25

culture's going, and then sharing

4:27

that to help companies are

4:30

interested in the individuals? It's very kind. I

4:33

actually don't think it's some sort of incredible

4:36

crystal ball, or seeing around quarters, or seven

4:38

cents. I think it actually speaks

4:40

about two things that I think are not obvious

4:42

to how I navigate business, but

4:44

I think for my inner circle, Andy, or

4:46

my family, it's very clear. The answer to

4:49

your question is by

4:51

listening constantly, and

4:53

by having the humility and the strength

4:55

to change my mind. On the flight

4:57

out here, I told my dad, who you just

4:59

mentioned, that changing your mind is

5:02

an incredible form of intelligence. And

5:04

we were looking at it and talking about it. I

5:06

think what you're referring to, which is a great call

5:08

out, within a literally three year

5:10

short window, so much of

5:12

VCon One was educating the audience,

5:15

the masses about the evolution of

5:17

the blockchain, digital art, NFTs, crypto.

5:20

You know, here we are only three

5:22

years later, and even though there's

5:25

incredible nuances to that theme, there's

5:27

gonna be plenty on social live

5:29

shopping, and virtual influencers, and anything

5:31

else that's of the moment. I think for

5:33

me, I wouldn't even know

5:35

how to do something consumer centric that

5:39

was being held on a romantic philosophy

5:42

versus the reality of what's happening

5:44

with the consumer, right? And so

5:47

I can give the same

5:49

credit to your incredible publication. Because

5:51

I was early internet in the mid 90s,

5:54

there were so many magazines that were

5:56

incredibly, like the internet's a fad, screw

5:59

the internet. We sell magazines. Rolling

6:01

Stones, among its competitive set, was

6:03

one of the organizations that moved

6:05

early. And I think one

6:08

of the reasons it continues to be around

6:10

is because of that. And I think that

6:12

is the cost of entry in business. Back

6:14

to mentioning my father, what we sell at

6:16

Wine Library today looks very different than

6:19

what sold 15 years ago, because people's

6:21

flavors change. Aperol Spritz was

6:23

not hot, right? Rose

6:26

wine was not hot. Ready to

6:28

drink vodka shelters were not hot.

6:30

And many things that were hot

6:32

no longer sell at all. And so

6:34

I think being trained in retail consumer and

6:37

just kind of being in my DNA, plus

6:39

I grew up in the hobby. Trading cards,

6:41

comic books. When I was in

6:43

my early youth, I think I've always been

6:46

prepared to adjust to reality. And

6:48

I think one of the great ways to lose in

6:50

business is being romantic about how you

6:52

make your money. I think you

6:54

have to be consumer centric, and then it will

6:56

be there. And I think for me, when we

6:59

program this event, why on earth would I not

7:01

be giving people content that's of the moment? And

7:04

I think that that's important. We

7:07

have time for two more questions. What

7:10

is happening right now at Vference? What we

7:12

don't see. Last year you said it's the

7:14

focus on YouTube Kids. Yes. Is

7:17

it still the same focus or? Yeah. Where is

7:19

the focus? As a matter of fact, as a preview, you'll see tomorrow

7:21

my opening keynote, we kind of put the bow to what I told

7:23

you a year ago, and we will put a

7:25

real flag in the YouTube Kids execution. I

7:28

think for us, what has very much

7:30

been built in the last year is you

7:33

look at Andy's, you know,

7:35

strap around his neck, collectible

7:37

pins, trading cards. I mean, I

7:40

know you're always paying attention. Like what's going on

7:42

on eBay right now with our physical product. But

7:44

also I think the most interesting thing that's happening

7:46

in V friends now is

7:48

that the physical collectibles are leading

7:50

to a new era of digital

7:53

collectors. I mean, we have, as

7:55

you can see how Andy doesn't react that often as you just

7:57

saw him react. The reason he's reacting

8:00

is we have dozens of examples internally

8:02

that we're watching from people that have

8:04

discovered VFriends from watching us opening

8:07

up trading cards on Fanatics Live,

8:09

never knowing about VFriends or me,

8:12

stumbling on that show, and

8:14

three months later buying their first ever NFT.

8:17

So for us, the blending of digital

8:20

collectibles to physical collectibles,

8:22

and physical collectibles to digital

8:24

collectibles is important, but I'll

8:28

say this crystal clear. The kids book

8:30

that just came out that's doing very

8:32

successfully commercially, these cartoons

8:34

that I'm referring to that will put a

8:36

preview up tomorrow on, if

8:39

we can't get people to fall in love with these characters,

8:41

you lose. Disney's

8:44

successful because people love Mickey Mouse. Star

8:47

Wars is successful because people love

8:49

Luke Skywalker. You know, we

8:52

are on a journey to make people fall in

8:54

love with our characters, and if you

8:57

can't do that in cartoon or book or

8:59

movie form, you're in trouble. And so we have

9:01

a huge focus on that, and

9:04

then obviously the utility of the NFTs for

9:06

things like this, and so we have

9:08

a very head down decade of kind of

9:10

like, it's not so much so

9:13

many new things, it's we have to

9:15

execute the crap out of our core six things, and

9:18

I think we have a good vision for that. Excellent.

9:22

Last question, for the lucky last

9:24

one. Where do I get to

9:26

spin? I said

9:28

the same one. Dad, you can go to

9:31

ebay.com and bid on your favorite pin.

9:33

Thank you, honestly, it means a lot to me for all

9:36

of you to come out. I hope you enjoy this weekend. Thank

9:38

you. Thank you.