Gary Vaynerchuck Wants You to Know About This Massive Attention-Grabbing Opportunity He's the master of getting attention, but he also knows a thing or two about keeping attention.

Everyone wants attention. Few of us know how to get it.

Why? According to attention-getting master Gary Vaynerchuk, it's because most people misunderstand where attention comes from — and that the means of getting it keep changing.

"Social media was once more like email marketing," he says. "You would get as many people to follow you as possible, and when you would post, a percentage of them would see it. Today, one of your clips on TikTok can get 10 million [views], and another might get 4,000. The distribution now happens with algorithms, and that is a massive land grab that I want people to know about."

Vaynerchuk has built a massive social following, and a constellation of successful businesses under his company VaynerX, by understanding how the means of attention keep shifting. His new book, Day Trading Attention: How to Actually Build Brand and Sales in the New Social Media World, is a guide to understanding attention — and how to spot and exploit "undervalued" opportunities. Here, he explains how to do that, why he's not afraid of AI, and why attention will never be in short supply.

Related: How To Leverage Social Media to Optimize PR Success and Increase Your Brand Awareness

Are you using AI tools for your own content yet?

We've been slow to, and that's because of the terms of service. A lot of these AI companies were very spooky to me, because if we ingested our content, it wasn't clear if they could use it.

I have unlimited content on the internet, so I know that anyone can take it, ingest it into an AI tool, and think or act like me. But it's one thing if someone went on the internet and took my stuff. If I self-deposit my content into an AI tool, I want to know what's going to happen. Now it seems like AI companies are starting to write terms of services where they say, "You can use our tool, but we have no rights to your information."

So what is scaring you with AI?

Nothing scares me per se, but the thing that everybody should always be vigilant on is: What don't we know? I am not overtly scared of the robots killing our children, but I don't eliminate it as a possibility.

Anything can happen. I just don't demonize new technologies. I look at the optimism. I don't think about all the jobs that AI is going to take out; I think about all the jobs that AI is going to create. When the tractor was invented, the number of people who worked on farms in this country was insane. It put many of them out of work. You know what that meant? People went on to do more profound things. The jobs we'll lose because of AI in the next decade will be replaced.

For example, this will be a massive job: prompt engineer. Being good at asking AI questions is a skillset. So for every kid that's like, "Oh, my God, I can't be an Adobe designer anymore" — well, first of all, I'm old enough to know when that wasn't a job. Adobe replaced the people who used to design on paper. People forget that the world has worked this way forever.

Do you worry that AI will replace the work you do at your ad agency, VaynerMedia?

I'll put myself out of business before I let someone else do it — meaning, I will adjust to the reality of the game. We've built one of the largest global independent agencies in the world by taking money directly away from the Don Drapers of the world. Every dollar that VaynerMedia has is a dollar that older, larger agencies had. So if I'm taking from someone else, I can't be a hypocrite.

I don't think that I am entitled to benefit from entrepreneurship. I think I need to respect entrepreneurship, and be a good entrepreneur, and then I will reap the benefits of it. This is my biggest problem with fake entrepreneurs that make a lot of money, and then go use their money in politics to try to change laws to keep their money. I don't respect that, because I think they're losers. If AI is destined to come and kill me, then I will Obi-Wan Kenobi that shit.

Related: Despite How the Media Portrays It, AI Is Not Really Intelligent. Here's Why.

In your book, you describe attention-getting tools as either undervalued, where there's an opportunity to get in early and establish yourself, or overvalued, where it's crowded and more expensive and difficult to stand out. TikTok might seem to be overvalued, because it's so crowded — but that doesn't mean it's too late for someone to start posting there, right?

Correct. It would be like saying, "There's no room for Billie Eilish because Madonna and Cyndi Lauper and Whitney Houston were pop stars, and all the pop star opportunities are done." It's a merit-based game. Every platform is fertile ground — but especially once one gets overpopulated, you need creativity to be the best.

So what's something very undervalued right now?

Live streaming the mundane. There's going to be a big movement of that in the next three to four years. A stay-at-home mom or dad is going to stream their morning of cooking, cleaning, and getting the family ready, or mowing their massive lawn, and that person will go on to make seven figures.

Don't forget — when Twitter was new in 2006, everyone was saying, "This is so stupid. Who cares if you're having a pizza? Who cares that you're walking your dog?" And my answer back then was: Everyone. It's how human communication works.

I struggle with this. Because as a business owner, I think, "I'm running a business, and I'm already supposed to be on social all the time. Now I should be streaming all the time?"

Well, that's why I suck at streaming right now. I'm streaming my office right now — but my problem is, my day-to-day is so boring. I'm literally sitting at my desk doing 12 straight hours of meetings, and the entire stream is on mute because the meetings have sensitive information.

But there are ways to be clever. Years ago, when I decided that I wanted to vlog, I was like, I can't do that. But then I took a crazy step and hired [my former videographer] D Rock, who literally started following me around with a camera.

Related: The Business of Harnessing the Power of Social Media

But how do you run a business when you're doing content all the time?

Listen, I am very busy — but if I can allocate 30 or 40 minutes to bring awareness of what I'm doing, that's ROI positive. Also, I love a twofer. For example, I do podcasts for two reasons: One, it brings me the attention of that podcast's audience. But two, I'm also filming it, because I need the content! My life is my production facility.

You're launching a new book, which reminds me of great advice that you gave me when I launched a book: You said to go off the grid for two weeks, write a list of everyone I know, and then contact them.

I still give that advice! Asking is okay — so long as you don't judge them if they don't deliver. People struggle with this, because their feelings get hurt when someone doesn't buy a bunch.

The most impactful story I have on this is: I helped someone get an eight-figure exit on an investment, and then asked him to buy copies of my book...and he ghosted me. I asked four times! I was baffled. But I also remember being excited, because I was able to call my bluff on myself. I've continued to have a relationship with that person, because my brain goes to, "Maybe he was busy. Maybe he was in a bad place. I don't know. Who am I to judge?" Here's the key: I was asking — and when you ask, you're not allowed to judge.