The Bossticks - Gary Vaynerchuk - How To Win In Life & Shift Your Mindset For Success
Episode Date: May 13, 2024#699: Today, we're sitting down with Gary Vaynerchuk, also known as "GaryVee." Gary is a serial entrepreneur, the Chairman of VaynerX, and a 5x New York Times Best Selling Author. He is a leading glob...al mind on what's next in culture, relevance, and the internet. We sit down for a conversation about the importance of marketing and branding, and what companies are doing wrong when it comes to building a customer base. We also discuss motivation, how to cultivate a no-excuses approach, and how to shift your mindset to set you up for success. To connect with Gary Vee click HERE To Pre-Order Day Trading Attention click HERE To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE To Watch the Show click HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential This episode is brought to you by Cymbiotika Cymbiotika is a health supplement company, designing sophisticated organic formulations that are scientifically proven to increase vitality and longevity by filling nutritional gaps that result from our modern day diet. Use code SKINNY to receive 15% off your subscription at cymbiotika.com This episode is brought to you by Dreamland Baby Use code SKINNY at checkout for 20% off sitewide & free shipping at dreamlandbabyco.com This episode is brought to you by Primally Pure If you're tired of discomfort during your menstrual cycle, try the Cycle Soothing Spray from Primally Pure at primallypure.com/SKINNY and use code SKINNY for 15% off your order. This episode is brought to you by Nutrafol Nutrafol is the #1 dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement, clinically shown to improve your hair growth, thickness, and visible scalp coverage. Go to nutrafol.com and use code SKINNYHAIR to save $10 off your first month's subscription, plus free shipping. This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market Thrive Market is the go-to for all of your grocery and household essentials- and it's all conveniently delivered to your doorstep. Get 30% off your first order, plus a free $60 gift at thrivemarket.com/skinny or use code SKINNY at checkout. This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp BetterHelp is online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat-only therapy sessions. So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy & you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/skinny. Produced by Dear Media
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She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire.
Fantastic.
And he's a serial entrepreneur.
A very smart cookie.
And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic
are bringing you alone for the ride.
Get ready for some major realness.
Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.
I fucking sat and wrote this book in 2008,
and I wish you knew how nobody believed me.
Not my publisher, not my ghostwriter, not the audience.
People, shit, go look at the Amazon reviews
when I first put this out.
Literally people wrote things like this snake oil salesman's
trying to tell you,
you're going to make $100,000 a year on YouTube.
What a joke.
Think about what a joke that comment is now.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the Skinny Confidential, him and her show.
Today, we have a special episode that feels very full circle for Lauren and I personally
with our friend Gary Vaynerchuk, also known as Gary Vee.
This one's been a long time coming.
This is the original serial entrepreneur.
And in this episode, you will find takeaway after takeaway after takeaway.
The reason this feels so full circle to us is we've known Gary for a long time. It's been, you know, almost a decade. And the very first time we actually got on a mic together, Lauren and I, was on his show, the Ask Gary V Show. That was in March of 2016, almost eight years ago. And that was the first week that this show also launched. So it's kind of this real full circle moment where we haven't had a bunch of interactions, at least on the podcast with Gary. And so to have him on after all this time feels kind of, like I said, like a full circle moment.
is a five-time New York Times best-selling author. He's the leading global mind on what's next in
culture and the internet. I also find it super interesting that his book that he just read,
which we'll get into, is sort of going to be the curriculum. Do you know what I mean? Like for,
I feel like schools, for the future, for the youth. For anyone that cares about garnering attention
online, building a brand online, building, you know, a business online, this is going to be the one.
In this episode, we'll talk about the no excuses approach, advice for those who,
who can't find a passion, the common denominator of unhappy rich people, how he maintains his
crazy energy, and also how to bring value to your audience. We also talk a lot about self-awareness
in this episode and how to really be the best version of yourself. I think that you'll find
that this show really encompasses what we're all about. Yeah, and I'm sure many of you are familiar
with Gary and I've seen a lot, but I think there's also a lot of personal stuff in this episode that
he hasn't touched on before. So for those that are Gary Vee fans, I'm sure many of you are,
maybe some different things in here as well.
Lauren and I both admire Gary immensely, have so for years.
With that, Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary V, welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her show.
This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her.
This is full circle for me because my dad gifted me, crush it.
I want to say 14 years ago, right before I launched the Skinny Confidential, I read it, I highlighted it,
I dog-eared it.
Then, after implementing it, you came to me, I want to say, eight years down the line,
and I got to be in your book crushing it.
And then I was on your show, and now we're interviewing you.
It's a weird moment.
It's a family affair.
I was saying how you're like the internet's dad.
Like your students or your kids are growing up.
In like a real way.
Yeah.
You know, it's like, I mean, I was at DoorDash yesterday.
This kid's 32.
He came up to me at a Super Bowl party.
I stopped by yesterday when I was in San Francisco
and he's like, you and I had a call when I was 14.
I cold emailed you in Hong Kong
and said, can I speak to you about entrepreneurship?
You said yes.
I'm really good at remembering shit, like really good.
Especially not names, but visuals and moments.
I couldn't recall it.
I don't like bullshitting.
I couldn't recall it.
This dude's like, actually, the full story
was at a Super Bowl party this year
at Michael Ruben's fanatic super party,
the boogey one.
Like this woman comes up,
this woman comes up to me, excuse me, his wife,
and goes, you need to meet someone.
I'm like, of course.
She goes, so he says, like, she's like,
telling the story. He's like, I was 14, Hong Kong,
you made me believe in entrepreneurship all the way through.
And then she goes, this is the co-founder of Door Dash.
And like, and we were hanging out yesterday,
we were chopping it up and like, you know,
not only, I'm in a very wild part of my career,
like watching all of you,
like, really when you've been putting out as much content
about what you thought would happen,
and then it happened,
and it's impacting so many people,
and it's positive,
and you get to be in the airports
or literally on the way here,
like we're working on the BeFriends
theme song and music
for the cartoons that are coming out,
and the music group,
the team that brought them in,
they're like, they're the hottest,
they're the best,
they're winning, they've done all these shows,
and then they start the meeting with,
Gary, our company took off
because we read your book,
and the people that introduced us
didn't even know that.
It's like, I'm in this incredible period
because I'm still young, right?
I'm still, like, in my journey.
Yet, to your point,
I've been on this kick for 15 years,
and a lot of people that were, like, 19 or now 34,
you know, 28 or now 43, like,
and then, like, watching y'all and so many others
who I know a book or a video
changed the course of their careers,
God, it's humbling beyond belief.
I think what stands out for me
is that that book was so different
than anything that was on the market.
Especially then.
It was so avant-garde and it was so, it was like the discipline and the hard work and putting in the reps and the consistency.
And it's like, it is all the things that happened.
And the thesis.
People will become famous and build businesses around the things they're interested in at scale.
And people shit on me heavy when that book came out.
It came out in 2009.
I wrote in 08.
This is like 15 years ago now.
It was right when we were getting out of school.
How did you have a nose for that?
Looking back, because now you have the perspective.
It's, it was, you know, how some, like, I don't know, like, why does he have such great hair and so fucking handsome?
Like, you're born with shit. I'm born with some sort of ability. I don't know. Like, I'm born with some sort of ability to have a very good sense of what people are going to do before they understand they're even going to do it. I've always been good at that. It's how I built my dad's wine store. I knew that Australian and New Zealand wines were going to get hot. Spanish wines. And, like, nobody in the wine industry saw it. Like, I, I,
I'm very good at that. I mean, you, think about your careers. You know that I was the loudest
on musically. Always. Like, like, this is what I do. I'm that guy. There is, I was, just think,
I told you before we started. Like, there were so many places that we could take this interview.
We've been so aware of your content and it's been so critical in our careers in the development.
And I was thinking the last time we sat down. It was actually the very first thing I ever did publicly
ever with your show. He snuck on. He snuck on. He snuck on. I snuck on. I snuck on. I snuck on. I
got invited and Michael was like, no, no, no, I'm coming on with you.
Listen, I'm going to take the shot, you know, if I can take the shot.
I don't remember now.
I was like, and he, we had matching leather jackets.
I'm like, what's going on?
It was a little strange looking.
Yeah, I'm like, I found it.
It was episode 191 and it was March in 2016.
The reason that date so important is that was the same exact week we launched this show,
the very first episode ever.
And you played such a critical part because we would drive back and forth to San Diego
from L.A., San Diego, L.A. all the time.
And we would listen to the Ask Gary Vee show, you and some other guys.
And it was like, I remember trying to think,
I've always been a kind of an operator behind the scenes guy.
But I remember listening to you on that show.
I'm like, oh, I like that format.
Like, I could do that.
You know, it's interesting, I'm an operator.
Huh?
You know, like, the thing that's always been weird about me is that I always love when people come to Vayner,
like influencers or other people, we do a lot of that.
We always trying to give love, just like I did with all of, with you.
I continue to do that, even at this place of my career, like random 15-minute meeting
with some kid that's, like, I love it.
I love the come up.
The amount of people that come into Vayner media and are like, what the fuck is this?
And I'm like, what do you mean?
They're like, what is this?
I'm like, this is my company VaynerMedia.
They're like, huh?
Like the amount of people that think like I'm an influencer or a personality or a motivational
speaker or an author, like the reason the operators always fuck with me is because I'm an operator.
The second part of what I was going to tell you, which is it was a real moment in my life
personally was I read the book with Lauren and I started talking a lot.
And it was a lot of talk.
And I'm like, wait a minute.
I came and saw you in your office and you talk.
but what people don't realize about you is what you actually do most of the time is operate
massive businesses all over the place and that's your main like the thing people see is the
side thing and I saw that with you and I was like okay that shut the fuck up more go do the thing
yes you can talk along the way about the thing but go do the thing actually and it was a moment
like as a young guy I was looking around there's all sorts of people on the internet and it's like
who do you listen to and I remember like you were the north straw I was like oh this guy you can
listen to because he actually is doing the thing when
a lot of people are talking about the thing, but not actually doing it.
It's why VaynerMedia has become one of the largest independent agencies in the world.
Literally 15 years ago, I started VaynerMedia.
I was in the wine retail business running my dad's wine store.
And in 15 short years, we built a 2,000 person global agency for Procter & Gamble on Pepsi and fanatics.
Like, we're it.
Like I was just in Miami at PossibleCon.
Like everyone knows in advertising, the madmen, like the people that do the advertising for BMW and for the gap and for Exxon.
Like the biggest that world,
everyone knows they're on call
that I'm coming to get them.
And the reason we're winning is that
now that social media,
organic, creative
is the starting point of marketing.
Organic social media,
the reason I wrote day trading attention,
which is the follow-up to Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab,
I hook.
The reason I wrote it is because as we sit here today,
the single most important thing in all of marketing
is first and foremost,
organic social media,
then everything else.
The reason to even have a podcast
is more about the clips
for organic social
than the podcast itself.
Like I literally did DailyVee
and I did ask Gary V and DailyV
for the social media clips,
not for the long form.
I even still do podcasts as a guest
because Dustin's sitting right there
der rocking it and we're going to clip it
and there's going to be three or four or seven things.
Social media organic,
more important than commercial,
more important than your email newsletter,
more important than a billboard,
more important than hiring Beyonce
to be in your Super Bowl spot,
big shout out Verizon,
more important to anything else
if you are not the best in the world
at organic social media
and the way I define that
because I know YouTube
have been paying attention for a long time
is I'm one of the few humans
that equally has 5 million followers on LinkedIn
as I have 15 million followers on TikTok.
I'm talking cross-platform.
I'm talking YouTube shorts.
I'm talking Snap Spotlight, I'm talking Instagram,
I'm talking YouTube proper, YouTube shorts,
I'm talking podcast, I'm talking newslet,
I'm talking for real, for real.
And so, yeah, I mean, I think it's just a fun time
to be on this show because you were saying right before,
you know, you said, you know, you're so sweet.
Like, I love you guys.
Like, you're like, what's a win for you, Gary?
I said, whatever's best for your audience right now, right?
And you said, our audience is starting to figure out
that like everyone could be an influencer.
And I said, fuck man, you couldn't even imagine
how that hit for me.
I'm like, I fucking sat and wrote this book in 2008.
And I wish you knew how nobody believed me.
Not my publisher, not my ghostwriter,
not my fucking, not the audience.
People, shit, go look at the Amazon reviews
when I first put this out.
Literally people wrote things like this snake oil salesman's
trying to tell you you're gonna make $100,000
year on YouTube, what a joke.
Think about what a joke that comment is now.
I think people, they're scared of the unknown and it was the unknown.
And what I like about you personally is that you always go for the unknown.
Everyone is so scared of the uncertainty and the unknown and what they don't know and they don't like it and they fear it.
So they hit against it.
They don't like change either.
Right.
And then other things that happen, especially for influencers and creators, is they get good at something and they want to hold on.
The reason so many people fucked up the TikTok moment was they got a million followers on Instagram and they wanted to stay there because it felt cozy because their ego like them.
the blue check mark and the million followers
so they didn't start setting up shop on TikTok
because they didn't want to start at zero.
I get fired up to start at zero.
I'm pumped.
Like, you know, like,
it's true.
Like, I love having 60 people watching me on Twitch right now
while I stream from my office on mute
because everything is private information
and all my friends and people are watching.
60. Like, I'm just putting it on to test.
42, like 28.
Like, you know, but,
Could I get more?
Sure, as Dustin knows,
like if I go on Instagram live for two seconds
and say, come over here, then it's 400.
But like, I'm not clicks.
I'm not Bugha.
I'm not Kaysana.
I'm not Aiden Ross.
I don't have the time right now
to sit in front and stream for 15 hours a day.
Do I think I could do that well?
I sure do.
I think I can gab with audience
for 15 straight hours and crush.
But that's not in the cards for me right now.
I'm operating.
I'm building an enormously big IP called V-Friends
and I'm building the biggest advertising agency
in the world.
I'm busy.
And that, so when I saw that as a full circle moment, I was like, oh, okay, there's a way to do this long form content and go and speak and do all the things that we all do. But you can still be a great operator. And this just reinforces the main thing. But and, you know, there's a lot of people out there selling a lot of stuff. I'm sure, you know, and, you know, get rich quick schemes and what to do. And I was like, if they're just selling you on the idea that like they're selling you on something and they don't have the actual infrastructure, like it'd be really careful. By the biggest argument in marketing right now, there's a lot of
marketing professors and pontificators.
I'm like, if you're so good,
why doesn't your book sell?
Like, to your point, get Rich Crick,
all that, that's played out.
Like people still get away with it,
but like people are getting smarter to that
and they're not as loud
and as noises as they used to be.
It smells, there's something that smells about it.
More importantly, it's just a simple question.
Like, if you're so good at marketing,
what isn't your shit sell?
Right.
Like every author that writes a marketing book
that the book doesn't crush
is a weird situation.
Like, if you're saying, right,
Like, if you're supposed to be so good at marketing, why doesn't your book sell?
What would you say to someone?
I can't wait to hear what you would say to someone that says,
I'm too busy to create content.
Because you have the 60 million companies.
I'm looking at this list.
Guys, I'm going to read it in the beginning of this episode.
It's going to take half the episode.
Yeah, please don't do that.
Please go off on what you would say to someone.
I'm too busy to create content.
You don't believe in demand creation.
What does that mean?
You don't believe that creating new customers.
or consideration for what you're doing is important.
Do you know companies that are really great at sales,
what they're also bad at marketing and branding?
If you're a sales organization,
that means it's not coming to you.
You're going out and hunting.
I love sales, and I love when companies do both.
Yes.
But if you're only about sales,
it means you don't know how to market and brand,
because when you know how to have market and brand,
it comes to you.
So when I hear that, I'm like,
oh, that person doesn't understand
that content on social networks in April of 2024
is the single most important thing
in the world to do great to get people to come to you
versus you go chasing it.
They're too busy oftentimes operating and selling
when if they understood that branding and marketing
would accomplish the selling
and free up time to operate.
VaynerMedia doesn't even do RFPs anymore.
This is very nerdy marketing talk,
the request for proposal.
We don't do it.
We don't need to.
give me the business because you know we're the best.
That's a good game.
It's a lot more fun when you go out to the club
when it's coming to you versus you running after it.
Yeah, because there's no desperate energy.
No shit.
Yeah.
You know, it's funny too.
That's what you want.
By the way, that's what you want with men.
Of course.
That's what you want when you're being chased as a woman.
Of course.
Come to me, bitch.
Of course.
You know what too?
I also like personally, I think Lauren and I both realize
we're really bad at the app.
We're really bad at the cell.
Me too.
By the way, I don't like selling either.
No, I don't like it.
It's why I like marketing and branding so much.
Yeah, I like that.
Think about what just happened in the meta here.
Gary, what would be a win for you?
Let me do branding.
Let me bring value to the audience.
Then of course they're going to want to buy the kids book.
Then of course they're going to want to buy, like I don't want to say.
What am I going to say? Buy my book?
Like no shit.
Like when people go do the Today show or a podcast,
I'm like, what the fuck are they doing?
No, the audience, what do you think?
Nobody understands like you go do a podcast.
You have a new book coming out.
What do you think they want to happen?
Of course you'd want your book to do well.
For me, my book's going to do well.
There's no scenario where my book is not going to do well.
And why is that and how is that from a micro level?
Like, how do you look at it?
When you are ready to launch a book, how do you look at it?
Do I have something to say that's going to create more of you two?
The reason date trading attention is fun for me.
I don't know if you've gotten to skim it or read it yet.
Yeah.
Okay, it's because even you two that are winning, there's real shit in there that you don't want.
Oh, yeah.
No, no, no.
By the way, I have all your books.
It's not just this, but it's all your books.
Well, that's it.
Anyone can open your book and highlight.
I write books on the concept of marketing and branding and the current world that are good
for even the people at the highest levels, which then, of course, is going to matter for the people
that are just starting out, which was the waitress you.
Yeah.
I write books that both will crush for you when you were waitressing and crush for you right
now in the midst of you building your empire.
Do you know how epic that is for me?
You also don't like books for money.
Of course not.
It's not enough money in it for me.
But it seems like you do it because you...
I want to be historically correct.
You also can't.
And I want to impact.
I want the intoxicate, to me,
a billion dollars is it intoxicating.
You two looking at me with the admiration
through your four eyes is the intoxication.
Admiration is a trillion dollars.
Has it changed over this two decades?
It's always been the same.
It's always been the same.
It's always been the same.
My favorite people to interact with
are the kids I grew up with that knew me for real.
Like, you know, everyone now is like, oh, Gary, you're not, you're, it's different now
because you got the money.
I'm like, you don't know me.
You don't know 27 year old me.
That was exactly this person making $61,000 a year.
Well, I do want to say something else to you.
We've been swimming in the same waters for a long time now.
And with that, and you know this too, you get to meet a lot of people.
And everybody talks.
Everybody knows each other.
Yes.
And not only do we know people that you've partnered with,
but we know people that have worked with you and for you.
of all these years,
I've never heard anyone say a bad word about you.
She just saying your praises today.
And I mean that is a real compliment.
Yeah, I mean, it's how I live my life.
I couldn't imagine
Dustin,
Sam Heaps, D.R. Like,
any, like, I, and by the way,
even sometimes when people leave when it's a little murky,
maybe I wasn't candorous enough,
that's why I wrote 12 and a half
to talk about the only kryptonite I think I've had
in people relationships was I wasn't candorous enough
to some people.
What is candorous?
I couldn't deliver candor.
I couldn't be like,
hey, Dustin, I need you to do that.
Like, if I love you,
but Gary Vee is the most candorous.
Yeah.
On stage, in a podcast, in book form,
crush candor.
Gary Vaynerchuk,
if I like you and you're not doing a great job at work,
I dance around it.
So how does that, then,
what do you think the impact of that is?
It created sloppy exits.
99.9% of people
are going to say remarkable things about me.
The point one that could be like,
eh, I couldn't tell them they stunk
and I surprised them when I fired them
and so I have resentment towards me.
And so that stinks
because what you just said,
what you just delivered is everything to me.
The way people that actually know me,
actually spend time with me,
actually talk about me,
means the world to me.
But I think it's important
because, again, like coming up and figuring this out and it's very fast pace and there's a lot
going on, especially in this world, like, I don't think, especially a lot of young people
starting here, they don't realize, like, this can span decades, especially if you're building
something on a personal brand. And you have to not only protect the business, but you have to
protect your reputation in the way you are people because you never know that intern becomes
the executive. What you're alluding to is a lot of people look up to a lot of people, but 88%
of them are pieces of shit. Yeah. Yeah. And people are hypocrites. And they talk about being nice on
camera and then everybody works for them hates them.
Yeah.
That's where you meet some people.
And you know, once you get in the circles, you get the truth.
Well, and you podcast with someone that you think is the best.
And you see the way they treat people in the office or the way they treat their own and
you're like, oh, that's so, it's so, like, it's devastating.
Never meet your heroes.
Yeah, sometimes.
Agreed.
Some are great.
Agreed.
Some are great.
88% versus 12% is a disappointing thing for all of us.
The creator side, right?
You start to see people that like are starting to kind of make it and they're getting
the traction.
and then all of a sudden they start to believe their own hype.
Of course.
Humility is the missing ingredient for almost everyone
because most people are grounded in security versus actual confidence.
Talk about that.
Well, like the reason I think I'm nice is because I'm confident.
Like, it's not super complicated.
Most people have bad behavior from their own insecurities.
Where do you think that comes from with you?
The luck of the DNA drawn epic parenting.
My mom crushed it, but I also know that I have siblings
and cousins and friends
and I have children,
I see how the world works.
It's not just parenting.
It's not just environment.
Like I got very fortunate that it was part of my DNA
and then it got reinforced by a mother
who really believed in kindness
who instilled that I was the best
so I believed her,
but not that bullshit delusional,
you're the best.
You're the best, she told me, son.
But then when I did things wrong,
consequences.
Modern parenting has fucked up.
That's why I wrote Mimi and the Me and the Me and the best.
middle. If you tell your kids they're the best, that's awesome. If that becomes delusion and you don't
have ramifications and consequences for their poor behavior, then they become delusional.
Kind of entitled, delusional. It's a fine line. Yes. The entitlement in our society in first world
countries like America, parts of Western Europe, rich China and other places is a fucking cancer.
Do you get pushback at all at this point in your career? Like there was a, we did an episode one time on
hustle culture and it was like a big like a hot button issue and you know our perspective is you got to put
in the fucking work like you you have I think I think you know what happened there in my career was
somebody wrote a medium article called hustle porn and put me as the I didn't know if they did that
that happened and so what happened was there was a moment there that it got a lot of heat and I started
but it was easy for me two things happened with that one the most remarkable thing was I talked about it
once on a podcast and because there was so many things that weren't true about me in the article
and I said that I felt bad for the person that wrote it, not for me.
And then that person reached out to me recently,
and I sent it to Sid and Andy,
because it was a big moment on our team Gary at the time,
and he apologized and said I was right on the podcast.
I didn't even know that that happened.
He used me.
So for me, that's what actually sparked people throwing me into that combo,
because if you read Crush It, I don't talk about working 18 hours a day.
I talk about having the capacity to work 18 hours a day when it's your hobby.
when you love it,
do you understand that I would not work
one hour a day if I didn't like it?
I got D's and F's for a reason.
I did not like school
and I believe that I'm part of the very rare club.
As a matter of fact,
Gary at VFriends.com,
if you're part of this club,
because I know there's not that many people
so I don't think my inbox will get flooded.
Don't email me otherwise.
Please, I got too much email.
But if you're one of these people, email me.
Are you part of the...
I never opened my book.
I never did a single piece of...
homework and I never studied for an hour or more in your entire four years of high school,
please email me because you and I are part of a, I am an all-time remarkably poor student.
From freshman year to high school, at North Hunter in High School in New Jersey, I did not do
one piece of homework in four years of high school. I never submitted a book report.
I did my Scantron as A, B, C, D, E, like, complete random.
And I never studied once, not an hour in four years of school.
of high school. My capacity to work hard when I don't like it is zero. My job, my career is my hobby.
I treat working the way people treat skiing and vacationing and cooking and watching Star Wars
and playing video games. It is my great hobby. So when people tried to throw the hustle thing at me,
I was like, the receipts exist, go watch my content. I don't work 18 hours a day to make a million
dollars for what? When people like Gary work, I just said this on another podcast. First time I ever said
this way. I'm like, they're like, yeah, but Gary, I work
nine to five. I have great work life balance.
I'm like, do you like your job? Nah. I'm like, you don't have
good work life balance. You have 40 hours
a week that you are fucking miserable.
I also disagree.
You do have to hustle.
Like, what, do people like not disagree with you,
but disagree that people are mad about that?
We are fully agreeing. That becomes, let me tell you what that's about.
That's similar to why cancel culture
is getting canceled. That was the manipulation
of a word. When the word hustle meant hard work,
we all agreed on it.
What happened was society manipulated the word hustle
into work so hard in such an unhealthy manner
that you will get sick or suicidal
all for the chase of money.
Yes.
My definition of hustle is hard work is one of the ingredients
to make something happen.
That'd be like saying to everyone,
good news, you don't need to go to the gym
or eat right and everything is going to be awesome.
Physically, not true.
So that was just the slang word of, this is why this is the biggest issue with cancel culture.
It doesn't factor in intent.
If somebody makes a misstep, but they didn't want to and they like you and they didn't mean it.
Why should they be fired and eliminated from society?
It was so out of whack, which is why it didn't last long.
There's a reason we're having a correction and why it was just a blip.
It was, it's not sustainable.
It's not right.
Yeah, it's why, like, honestly, we never, I mean, and again, and I think it comes with having, like, a lot of people in that moment were maybe new or just getting started finding their foot. We've been doing this for so long now, not as long as you, but that it felt like a blip in time. And I kept looking like, there's no way you can sustain this way. And people would get frustrated that we wouldn't take it more seriously. But I'm like, it's not. How are you not allowed? By the way, I stopped using hustle during that time and just used hard work. And work ethic. Do you want to cancel? I don't give a shit what they want to cancel. It has nothing to do with me.
Like, like, it's just, like, here's the problem with what life right now.
Everyone has such audacity that they think everyone should see the world the way they see it.
Oh, please.
I have deep conviction of how I see things on me.
I'm Gary V. I write these, but when I tell you, I totally understand why people don't see it the same way.
I have conviction that organic social media is the single most important starting point to marketing.
I equally spend my career seven hours, ten hours a day because I split it between me,
and be friends at Vayner,
with people who think a TV commercial
is the most important thing.
I think I'm right.
I think they're stuck in yesterday.
But guess what?
I'm not mad at them.
I don't hate them.
I don't think they're stupid.
I think they'll be proven to be wrong.
I don't think in 2024,
spending $4 million on making a commercial
for television on a non-streaming service
on network TV or cable is a good idea.
I think it's actually the stupidest idea.
But I'm not mad at anyone if they see it differently.
What's a bad day look like for you?
One of the things I'm struggling with right now
is that with 2,000 employees,
and I'm so HR-driven,
the pet team, the people and talent team,
always tell me when something bad has happened to an employee anywhere.
This is a big part of me wanting to be the human CEO.
To the point where I'm actually debating maybe not doing it anymore.
Because now at 2000, when it was 50 people, 80 people,
and everybody was 22, we were cruising.
Nobody's parents were dying.
Everyone was 22.
Nobody's parents were dying.
Nobody lost a baby.
Nobody had kids.
We were cruising.
I was like, I'm the best.
Like, meaning I'd have to hear about it once every few months.
And I would lean in now at 2,000 people, many of which are 40, 50, 30 things happen.
People's siblings die.
People's parents die.
People lose a baby.
People get sick.
People themselves get sick and hurt.
We had an incredible teammate get murdered.
Murdered.
In Brazil, I think.
Columbia, Columbia, like, so the weight
of a day-to-day negative thing of people I care about
that work with me heavy.
So a bad day for me would be getting bad news
about somebody in one of my companies
that's happened to them because I'm very emotional.
And so I take things on.
I'm able to carpatalyze.
That's what I'm great at.
I can deal with it.
But I would tell you my bad days are only left for cancer,
death, terminal illness,
car wreck, burnt house down.
Losing money?
Somebody saying I stink?
Like, fuck that shit.
I want you to talk about that a bit
because you've said that for a very long time
and I think a lot of people starting out
with that perspective.
Some people get, as we've become parents
and been married and all this,
I really lean into the same theory.
Like, if something happened to her or my kids,
like that's a real thing.
You look, you're losing a little money.
Let's go to the full extreme.
You guys are really,
it right now. You're on the presbynus of building your empire, right? What if we went to dead zero tomorrow?
Devastating. You've worked really hard. I'd figure it out. Of course. That. You have to have that.
You can't be scared. You know why? Because you have no choice. Right. Like, I don't understand. People
think they have optionality to step backs. Everyone's so scared of losing, they've lost.
Everybody is so scared of losing that is listening to this right now that they've already lost.
because of the fear of losing.
What about the forever student?
Oh, right.
Like, they just read about it and never do about it.
Yeah, I mean, they're a forever student.
Like, I don't know.
Like, I was that about health and wellness
from 28 to 38.
I was talking to myself for a decade
about I have to get to better shape.
I have to eat better.
Fuck, I have all these goals and dreams.
I'm not going to live to 100
if I don't fucking,
if I keep eating foie gras
and fucking never go to the gym.
And then at 38 and a half,
I finally got serious about it.
And I've started taking my health
more serious over the last 10,
years of my life. That's how I feel about all of it. I understand the forever student. I wasn't
with my health and wellness from 28 to 38. It's about fear. I used to say when I was 34 that I didn't
have time to work out. 34 year old Gary compared to 48 year old Gary with time. That guy is a puss.
Why is he a puss? Talk to 30. Talk to him. It's not that I work that much more or less.
My efficiency is like a fucking gangster. Do you know what my calendar looks like? No, can we see it?
Yeah. This is actually my dream.
to see your calendar.
Wait, do you have something in there that says 445 to 446?
It's very real to me.
Like, shower in there.
My efficiency, me learning as an operator that every one out, here's a big one for all
the entrepreneurs out there.
Every hour meeting you have is actually a 30-minute meeting.
Please, can you actually talk about that from a very detailed standpoint?
I need all these tests.
The reason I have so many 15-minute meetings is almost every 30-minute meeting.
meeting is actually a 15 minute meeting,
but you putts around on dumb shit that doesn't matter
or pleasantries that aren't required
at that moment. Like I'm so excited.
This is great. How do you stop? And like
eating the pineapple for a few minutes and like
making a coffee and all of a sudden it's like 209.
Let's do, here's my favorite one. 13 people
in a meeting. Let's do intros for a
fucking hour. No. I mean like
fuck that shit. I give you an example.
I was speaking to some banks the other day
and they were trying to schedule hours
every time like no, 30. Because
the point is like on the hour
Everyone does the round of introductions, how is the weekend?
And you also lose momentum in the conversation.
It's like let's just get to the point.
How do you hard stop it, though?
It's like going to the gym for an hour, but not doing a single exercise properly.
You don't have to hard stop it because people get to the point.
I want to know how you get out of 12 to 12, 15.
Someone's still talking.
What do you do?
Say, I apologize, I have to go to my next meeting.
Just straight up.
You're also in my role as I'm the conductor of almost every meeting.
Like everyone, don't forget, it's also scheduled from 12 to 12, 15.
People see it.
People know, right?
You know, like, I don't know.
They show up ready.
Yeah, like, listen, I'm, I'm bad at interrupting when I'm the podcast host.
I'm definitely going to interrupt in a meeting if we're trying to move shit along.
So you're like, sorry I have to go to my next meeting.
Bye.
I mean, it's even weirder than that, I think, back to the point I'm making, which is if this meeting is 12 to 1215, at 12.13, everyone's brains is like, this meeting's two minutes long.
Like, there's no, like, it's not like someone's going to pontificate about anything.
Like, I don't know.
Okay.
I'm going to take those 15 minute meeting tips.
And it also, what I like about seeing your calendar, too, is you can tell you've also carved out time that's personal.
Yes, of course.
Now, I don't do a whole lot of personal between like 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Like a minimum day for me is 10 hours of operating.
No lunch.
I barely go to the bathroom.
It's 10 hours, right?
Every day, every day, every day, every day.
And by the way, that's the minimum.
There's plenty of 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and all that.
Listen, I love what I do.
But I'm in or I'm out.
Like on the weekends, I'm see you.
Vacations, see ya.
Jets game, double see you.
Like, you can tell me the world's burning down.
I'm like, this game's not over yet.
You know, like, I carve out that time.
And I've definitely evolved in ebbs and flows
with your personal life of like,
there's times where you can triple down on work.
There's times, like you find different variables
and different chapters of your life.
There's no system.
I also have no ideology to my work ethic.
Like, I'm also comfortable changing my mind tomorrow
and never working again.
It's a fluid situation.
Like, it is what it is.
I focus on one thing.
Enjoyment, satisfaction,
happiness, and currently this is working,
but if it changes, it changes.
At the time of this recording,
Lauren and I are on the go.
We're out here in LA.
We've been out here for the last week,
doing all sorts of interviews,
catching up at the Dear Media offices
out here in Hollywood.
And every single time that we travel,
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order. So when people come to you at this point, you've talked to thousands of people and they
say, Gary, I'm not happy with what I'm good? I don't like my bid. I mean, I'm not a I don't have
passion. Like what is the main theme that you're recognizing with those people and what is the
response to them? Lack of accountability.
or optimism.
And they're looking for answers,
but often what they're looking for
is affirmation for their excuses.
And the reason they like me is
I don't want to do that for them
because everyone else is doing that for them
and it's fucking them up.
What most people want is for you to agree
to why they got unlucky
or why it's not going well.
If you look carefully of what's happening,
a lot of us are creating entitlement
and nepotism for people we love
by acknowledging things that aren't true.
Like, for example,
the thing that's really playing out in society right now
is the real pandemic is non-accountability.
Right?
So right now you have an entire,
let's just use our country for a little bit.
It's Biden's fault.
It's Trump's fault.
It's Republicans' fault.
It's Democrats' fault.
It's my spouse's fault.
It's mom, and now the other big one,
it's mom's fault.
It's dad's fault.
It's everyone's fault.
What about this?
Like, the thing that I'm usually trying
be like usually where I go, depending on the tone and tenor of the person.
You know, some people love a gym trainer that like really grinds you.
Like, go, go, whoa, blah, like people like that.
Other people like one that's a little bit more like your therapist slash trainer.
Everybody likes different things from different relationships.
What I tend to try to do is look at the person that's coming at me,
whether randomly at an airport or somebody I really care about and be like,
what style of communication can I give right now that brings them the most value?
For some people, it's like, look, that's real trauma.
Like, if somebody comes to me that, I don't know.
And, like, this happens to me a lot.
Like, I don't know them, but they consume my content.
And I'm, like, in line to get a coffee.
And they're like, Gary, can I speak to you?
I'm like, you know, I'm pretty me. I'm me.
I'm like, sure.
They're like, look, man, like, my dad was an alcoholic
and, like, sexually abused me.
I can't be like, yo, bro, who gives a fuck?
Like, that's not appropriate.
You need to come with real compassion in that moment.
That's something I can't fully understand.
I'm not all knowing.
I'm like, to me, that needs,
extreme sympathy and compassion.
But if that's a 45 minute combo,
not a one minute convo,
then at some point that the story with that person,
especially if it's the 18,
let's say it's an employee
and I'm in hour 18 over three years with them.
At some point in that combo,
it starts to transition into like,
you are aware that other people
have also gone through this traumatic experience
and through therapy, meditation,
health and wellness,
mentally and emotionally, physically.
They've been able to get on the other side.
Humans are remarkable.
I mean, there's people that literally were in concentration camps
during the Holocaust,
watch their parents get shot,
and then escaped the Holocaust because America freed them,
came to America and started their families.
You know how insane that is?
So, like, look.
It's a wild concept to think about now, especially.
Yeah, let me say it again, like, actually,
I've never used this analogy,
because this is a very real story.
There were many people
that spent many years in concentration camps
as children physically watched their parents die
and then escaped,
left their country in Eastern Europe
and came to America and became the starter
of the new family tree.
If they can overcome that,
everyone listening to this podcast
with whatever fucked up mom and dad,
neighborhood, somebody fucking them.
Like people come to me like Gary,
I can't do it anymore.
My business partner stole a million dollars for me.
I'm like, fuck you.
I'm like, yes, you can.
So now, how you start that conversation
isn't always like, rah, rah, rah, I got you.
Sometimes it takes four hours of compassion
before you can start to transition the energy
to accountability and capability.
But the issue, you know, what do I say?
You're capable.
You don't like politics is such a hot topic, right?
You don't like what's going on in America?
Go to Sweden.
I don't know.
Like, if you're so distraught right now
listening to this and you think America's the worst,
I have great news.
Australia is lovely.
Yeah.
And so to me, why are you going to complain
when you're in control?
Ah, you like that feeling.
People don't want to be accountable.
I think complaining gives people
sometimes identity.
It gives them the short-term
endorsement hit.
It gives them a short-term excuse.
It gives them a band-aid.
It gives them a jolt of, I don't suck.
Life is as basic as a conversation.
comes. Insecurity, self-confidence, everything else is secondary.
Yeah, it's interesting too because, like, the message is very clear, and I couldn't agree more.
But, you know, there's also this thing that's like, well, easy for you to say Gary V.
Point of Privilege, Lauren and Michael, point of privilege. And like, it's just like it's another bump along the road.
Only because they don't have context. Of course. Sure, easy for me, Gary. Let's talk about Gary.
I immigrated from the Soviet Union. I grew up in a household where my dad worked every minute,
where my mom starting, who's the greatest of all time,
but very early on said,
you take care of your sister.
I've only had responsibility.
I've only had stress and pressure on my head.
My whole life started working my dad's liquor store at 14.
At 16, I'm already a financial impact on the business.
Now I've got that.
Like, I've only had, and I've never had a vacation in my fucking life.
How about that?
I didn't take one as a kid,
and by the time I was grown and I went,
every vacation I've been taken in my entire adult life,
I've had to think about responsibilities that were happening
while I was on the fucking beach,
so I promise you I wasn't.
on fucking vacation.
Yeah, that's one thing.
Thank you.
Like, fuck you.
How about, I'm happy.
How about you?
Fourth kid in your family,
never had the responsibility.
Everyone took care of you
in the fucking family.
You got it good.
You're the oldest, right?
Yes.
Like, fuck that shit.
Like, as if nobody else has,
like, everybody has something.
Everybody has something.
The thought that I have it,
like, the thought that other people
have it better than me,
that is stupid.
Why would anyone think that?
You don't know about people's life.
lives.
You know how many people
have had atrocious
things happen
that they've never
had the strength
to say out loud
nobody on earth knows
there's everyone's
walking around with secrets
everyone has skeletons
everyone has trauma
everyone has pain
like no I don't think
it's a point of privilege
plus what are we defining
success?
That's the thing
the stupidest fucking thing
I know on earth
is that people define
people of privilege
with money.
Money has no correlation
to happiness
you know
you guys are grown now
you're in circles
you know unlimited
amount of people
with money
are more unhappy to do the day of less.
100 fucking percent.
And by the way, you don't know yet.
You'll find out if you get there.
And if you don't get there, you won't know.
Like, I don't know.
Like, am I supposed to think LeBron's lucky
because he's a fucking athletic freak?
I know that I wasn't born as an athletic freak,
but I don't know what's going on in LeBron's life.
Like, I'm supposed to believe that Beyonce has it so fucking awesome.
I don't know what's going on in Beyonce's life.
How are you going to teach your kids this?
I want to know for my own, like,
What are you doing that you, and this book, too,
you could talk about this as well.
Like, what are you doing for your kids?
You're just having conversations, but don't forget,
I'm not going to be the best vessel.
Like, there's different vessels.
I'm going to be my kid's dad.
I'm definitely not going to be Gary Vee.
I might be very effective for your kids.
Right.
By the way, I might be the perfect person for your kids one day.
They were like, this is somebody we knew for a long time.
They're going to think it's, they may think I'm cool.
It's happening right now.
For so many of my friends, they're 15 to 20 year old.
the amount of text I get from friends
saying my son just texted me
a fucking video from you
that I've been telling him for nine years
but he hasn't listened
but he texted me and be like dad we should do this
you're like motherfucker I've been telling you this
because sometimes you need an outside voice
sometimes Oprah did it for people
even though mom was saying it the whole time
I can't be that I'm going to be dad for my kids
what am I telling them I'm doing dad shit
but I also know that dad shit's only gonna be 50% of it
because people humans when they grow
up, dad, mom can only have so much leverage on them.
So I could do dad shit there.
I try to do dad shit for the internet.
Older brother shit.
No, you're the godfather.
The godfather of the internet.
You know, like I try to do it.
I try to lead positive contributions.
And then I'm also okay if I'm not the right vessel.
Yeah.
I'm going to be very calm if for the people, like I'm comfortable.
I mean, my sister.
My sister and I are very close.
She always laughs because I talk.
People know my brother I talk about more because I usually talk about business.
As you two know, I don't talk about my personal life.
So usually my sister's always like,
nobody knows that we always have.
Your sister's the middle.
Yeah, and I grew up with my sister
much more than I grew up with AJ.
How much younger is AJ?
11 years.
I went to college, AJ was seven.
So I, now I was also like 18 going on 11
and he was seven going on 17.
So we've always met in the middle.
But, you know, my sister,
I have a real fun relationship with
we're incredibly close.
And like, she's like...
What's a gap?
Three and a half.
We grew up together.
And like, we grew up different than AJ.
AJ had a little bit better
because I came to the wine store
and blew it the fuck up.
Let's just call it what it is.
So we grew up,
we have different stories.
We have our childhood together.
You said something so smart, though.
You said on your Instagram
that the way that you look at giving the kids
the internet is you want to instill self-confidence.
Oh, you're talking about it.
Yeah, I'll get to that a minute.
Let me finish this thought.
My sister even,
like had an epiphany with me
in the last five years.
Like the way she viewed me,
my dad, like,
and that's like somebody I grew up.
So like what I'm trying to say is that
like I'm humble enough to know that for some people,
like there's people listening right now
that I was literally the guy for.
I was the single human being,
many people come up to me and say,
you are my true father figure.
You are my true big brother figure.
It's humbling.
I know that I have the gifted gap
like many billions of people have.
I don't think that makes me special.
There's many other people right now
on the internet.
Pro left, right,
People hit with it music, musicians, right?
Like, fucking, what do you think?
Like, it's so fascinating to watch, like, who inspires, who breaks through, who gets through your fucking head?
That is something I think you're born with.
It's a communication concept, right?
So, I'm cool, I'm happy with that, but I'm also okay when I'm not.
Most people don't have the guts for this, but some people come up to me occasionally
be like, I don't buy your shit.
I'm like, okay.
I'm like, first of all, I'm not selling you anything, not asking anything of you.
and two, that's awesome.
Like, I get it.
Like, maybe I'm too high energy.
You don't like the cursing.
You don't like competitiveness to brought...
That's amazing.
I'm glad that a different kind of voice resonates for you.
Like, usually when I met with that,
normally on DM or comments, rarely in person.
But when I met with it in person,
I always tell them, like,
I hope you do find the person that hits for you.
For me, that was my mom.
It was never Joe Namath.
It was never Jay-Z.
Like, for me, the person that broke through was my mom.
I think the people that call you out like that, though, want your attention.
And when you give them the attention, they immediately back down and say, sorry.
I've seen it happen.
Yeah, of course.
And that's fine too, and I'm empathetic to that.
They just want to be acknowledged.
Yeah, of course.
I get it.
Listen, I live with compassion and sympathy and empathy running through my blood.
Yeah.
It is my natural state.
It's how I see the world.
I'm so grateful and humbled by the luck of the draw of my DNA and parenting and circumstance.
If I was born here and not in Russia,
I'd be a different person.
I lived in a studio apartment.
I remember living in a studio apartment in Queens,
the size of this room,
with more family members that are in the room right now.
Six hidden room now.
Do you understand how grateful I am
to be able to have a nice dinner?
Red Lobster on my 10th birthday
was like going to fucking Europe.
I wore a suit from Kmart
that my mom bought for fucking eight bucks
for my 11th or 10th
birthday because we went to Red Lobster.
I went to one, I went to two family vacations
in my entire life, both to Disney World.
The first time we stayed in the Holiday Inn,
not the fucking Mickey Mouse is,
stayed on the fucking Holiday Inn.
How the fuck am I not going to be grateful for everything?
I was fortunate to grow up that way.
And every time I had nothing,
I was always happy.
So of course I live a life realizing money's not happiness.
We didn't have it, and I was the happiest.
Now I'm around unlimited people with unlimited money
and they're fucking miserable.
You think I'm confused?
I'm definitely not confused.
What do you think the common denominator is
makes those people with the money unhappy?
They're insecure and they thought money was going to close the gap.
Yeah.
They thought the pretty girl was going to close the gap.
They thought the watch was going to close the gap.
They thought the handbag was going to close the back.
They thought the zip code 90210 is going to close the gap.
They thought the followers were going to close the gap.
They thought the blue checkmark was going to close the gap.
They thought the Grammy was going to close the gap.
They thought something with nothing is going to,
no thing is going to fucking close your gap.
If you were emotionally insecure, you are vulnerable.
You are vulnerable.
And oftentimes the person that made you insecure
was either your mom or dad, which is a whole brain fuck.
So say, like, in your scenario,
and I think in our scenarios,
we were all fortunate to have parents
that really instilled a lot of confidence
and told us we could do whatever we put our minds
and so we kind of had that.
But for someone who didn't grow up with that
and has those things, how do you help them get there?
Find people that do it for you
or content that does it for you.
I watched my father who did not have self-esteem
being built into him.
transform under his time being with me at the liquor store.
I'm proud to sit here and say,
I had a dramatic emotional impact on my father.
And how did he manifest?
I didn't know that.
I've never heard you talk about that.
Because I don't talk.
I'm trying to give you something nobody else has.
Here you go.
I mean, tell us about that.
I'll tell you.
I believe, I've never said it because it's not really for me to say,
but I feel like my father's and I relationship
is at the right place for me to say this.
I believe that if my father was sitting here,
he would tell you that the 22-year-old kid
that came full-time to work in that store
and really six years earlier than that,
that over the course of me being with him so much
between 14 years old and 34
that I fundamentally changed the way he viewed himself.
And how do you think you did that for him?
By telling him the truth.
What do you mean telling him the truth?
By when we drove to the liquor store
and I could see my dad didn't realize
how remarkable what he had done was.
I'm like, Dad, do you know how many people
come to America with 100 bucks?
Like he was shitting on himself.
He spent all his time and energy
on what was going wrong.
I was like, what about this?
By changing his perspective.
Dustin, do you believe that I've had a positive impact
on your perspective?
I know who Dustin was when he started.
That's no surprise.
I think anyone that's in your orbit,
I mean, we know DRock too.
Yeah, I mean, DRock would sit here right now
and be like, I had a profound change.
Like, yes.
But I think I'm surprised
because I have a similar dynamic
with my dad
that you had that kind of impact on your dad
because that's a different kind of impact.
That's a different one.
You know, look,
I think it is more unusual
for the child to do that for the parent,
but I also think I'm a supernova positivity.
Like, I think I'm different.
I think I'm passionate about it.
Back then I didn't even know what I was doing.
Meaning now I'm aware that I am that person.
Then it was just, I was a child.
I just, it's like, it's the purest form.
Like, I don't know how not to look at everything
from a positive, practical way.
Was there ever a strange dynamic when your dad had obviously laid the foundation
and built so much,
but then you kind of came in and ripped it to the next.
Was there ever like a weird,
dynamic of him looking at you being like,
my son is now like proud of you,
obviously because of everything,
but also surpassing, you know,
kind of...
Oh, we could do a whole fucking documentary on it.
We went from a place of where
my father and I competed with each other
and had weird dynamics about it
to a part in our life now
where he literally walks around Earth
every day with a hat
that says, proud dad of Gary Vee.
Sweet.
Yeah.
And he brings up something I said to him
all the time.
This is his favorite thing to say.
Well, it's not that cute.
I love it.
But he also has two other children.
I prefer my dad mix it up a little bit.
But like my dad always brings us up.
He brought it up yesterday when I spoke to him in between meetings in San Francisco.
He said, son, it's really nice.
I said something to my dad one day when we were driving.
And it was about how wine library was going to be the biggest wine store in New Jersey.
And I said, dad, I'm going to build such a big wine store for you.
and I'm gonna be so good at it
that everyone's gonna stop competing with us
because they're gonna all know
that they're fighting for second place.
That I'm gonna be so good
and this is gonna be so good
and I'm gonna build the biggest thing
and everyone's gonna be fighting for second place
because what my dad used to be worried about
is what you guys are giving me flowers for.
While I was building Wine Library,
I was telling the industry
in interviews what I was doing.
I was like, the internet's gonna win,
an email market, and he would get upset.
You're like, don't tell everyone your secrets.
And I was like, Dad, you don't understand.
I'm so much better than them.
I'm gonna tell them what I'm doing,
but they're not gonna execute it on it.
And it was this, like, really gangster moment
when I was like 24, three or whatever
that, like, was a real, I remember it vividly
the second I said it.
It was like, ooh, it was like a, you know,
like, it was being like a rapper
where you have a bar that you just know
you're going to be known for forever.
And it was just me and him.
We used to compete a lot.
It was a real challenge
because I was building the business
and I would struggle with him coming in
and be like, I'm like, Dad, I'm doing it now.
At the time I didn't understand,
when I was 22, full time back from college now,
don't forget, I was there since I was 14,
so I've been there every summer in high school and college.
Like I was there 100 days a year,
but now I'm there 365 days here.
When I was 22, my dad was 44.
four years younger than I am now.
Whoa.
That's weird.
That's a trip.
And so I was like at the time of 22, I'd be like, dad, like,
you're like, let me, like, you're good.
Like, like, I mean, the thought.
Like, I'm 48, I think I said earlier.
I'm like in the, I'm like just starting.
Like, like, so, you know, for my dad, it was, you know,
he was thrilled because the business went from four to 10 to 17 to 25 to 30.
Like, I fucking annihilated it.
changed the course of our lives.
He brought it online, right?
Brought it online.
That was the whole punchline.
But he lost his identity as the man.
And I didn't want him micromanaging
because I'm like, I'm fucking giving up my fucking 20s for you.
Because I also had my own resentment.
I didn't own any piece of the business
and he wasn't paying me a lot.
I love when people are like,
don't listen to Gary B.
He inherited a winery.
I'm like, okay, let's start from the top.
It's a wine store in New Jersey.
I inherited nothing.
And as a matter of fact,
there are very few people on,
earth that will give 150 hours a week for 12 straight years, give up their entire childhood,
all their fun of their 20s, and work every day to build a business for their parents.
Very few.
I sit in very rare air.
When people try to razz me at don't listen to this guy, I'm like, you don't know, you're
complimenting me because I sit on an island with very few other human beings.
It's interesting to watch you and know you for as long as we've known you, though.
When you talk about your parents, you get very emotional.
And I look at it as like still to this day making your parents proud is probably one of the biggest driving factors in your life.
100%.
And not only is that true, I just love them different, you know?
Well, that's what I was saying.
Like my dad's 80 now and we talk about this and Lauren's lost a parent.
And when you start to think, oh, you're going to lose this business or you're going to have a business.
Like all that stuff, it pales in comparison.
Like when I think about losing my dad and I'll get emotional if I think too much, or with her,
or losing her, like that's the stuff that like...
Oh, dude, it's why I'm happy all the time.
And it's why...
Bro, it's why I'm constantly happy.
Because you have that, yeah.
Yeah, because if I woke up today and nothing...
Like, when I tell you, like, even looking at my phone
after this interview, I'm only looking for one thing.
Is everyone good?
Yeah.
My life is so simple.
In all the complexity, right?
The 800...
Like, everyone's like, he's so crazy.
I'm like, I'm the simplest.
I'm the simplest of them all.
You're grounded in the perspective
of the things that are really important
and the other stuff is the game.
Of course I have micro concerns.
Of course I'm in the game, right?
It's like being a competitor.
It's like, you know, like when you're playing basketball
and like you're, like, I'm me, like I'm in it.
But like, not real life.
I'm detached from it.
That's why, by the way,
that's why I'm so pumped about Mimi in the middle.
You talk about Mimi in the middle.
I believe every parent that's listening to this
that buys this and reads it to their kids
is also going to be affected by it.
I am going to build a BeFriends world.
BeFriends is Pokemon meets Sesame Street.
Obviously,
Obviously the NFT thing got every, like with the hype and everything.
But it started there, but it's an Omni brand, cartoons, toys, trade.
If you go to eBay right now, please do this.
Please go to eBay right now and type in Vee friends and go to completed auctions.
You'll be blown away trading cards and squish mella.
It's like I'm built, like, by the way, back to like, I'm doing it again when I was Gary Vee,
but I was really building VaynerMedia.
Right now I'm VaynerMedia and Gary Viener.
But really what I'm building is like literally the next Marvel Pokemon.
Like I can't wait for everyone in 20 years, be like,
where do, and I'm doing it right,
I'm doing it right now.
And yet, back to like I told my dad,
no one's going to do it or no one's going to see it,
even though I'm telling you that I'm building
one of the biggest intellectual properties of all time,
people don't believe you, and that's okay.
And by the way, I might not.
You don't think people believe you at this point?
Still no.
Still no.
Still no.
If people believe me, everybody would run out and buy,
how many V-Friends series one NFTs do you have?
Yeah, Michael.
I don't have any V-Friends.
Series 1.
You want to get some.
But I don't have any.
No,
that's okay.
That's okay.
But listen, I don't have any NFTs.
That's right.
Comma, if you believe
that I was building one
of the biggest intellectual properties
in all time.
I should have gone in there.
And you would know
that you should go after this interview
and go to OpenC
and buy a BFriends
series one because that will be
the ultimate collectible.
That would be like comic book number one.
So no, I don't believe that people are.
You have to go buy it now that he just said it.
I'm sure the price has gone up.
No, no, no.
Actually, it's a great time in NFT land.
Everyone's confused about NFTs.
NFTs are forever, but everybody thinks NFTs are beanie babies.
NFTs are stuffed animals.
Only 1% of NFTs are going to be good.
Let me ask you, like, if this is the wrong analogy.
I was explaining, someone was asking about this, talking about this.
And I said, okay, if you look at the watch market, there's certain periods, there's people that love watches, love it.
You may put zero value, another person may put a million dollar.
Correct.
What about art?
There's people that buy $8 million pieces of art.
I'm like, I don't even want a poster.
What about sneakers?
The thing that everyone got, everyone just,
thinks that NFTs are all art, all watches.
One percent of watches are worth money.
One percent of trading.
You know many trading cards have been made
in the last hundred years?
God trillions.
But Michael Jordan's rookie card's worth a lot of money.
What people got confused of it is they coupled all NFTs
into one thing.
Not all, everybody was confused.
Not all NFTs are going to be worth money.
The 1% of NFTs are going to be worth money
because they're going to be digital collectible art.
and collectibles. V-Friends series one is something I'm going to try to make people give a shit about.
If they start by reading about Patient Pig when they're five, by the time they think Patient-Pig is
cool as they go up the ladder into comic books and animation and anime and movies and toys and
collectibles and trading cards, that made them bring them to the ultimate collectible, which is the first
one, the V-Friends series one. Now I better get on OpenC.
My hair has never been thicker or longer in my life. I used to wear Clippin,
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The other day I was on a Zoom with my friend Nick, who is one of the founders of Thrive Market.
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The Skinny Confidential him and her podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp.
One of the greatest benefits that Lauren and I get from doing this show is that we get to
share our thoughts rather regularly with all sorts of different people, all sorts of walks
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We try to be as vulnerable as possible in here.
It's actually been a little bit of like couples therapy for us because we're going through
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How do you have the energy every day?
What are this wellness and self-care?
No one asks you this.
I know you sleep a lot.
Okay.
Are you like juice?
Like what are we doing here?
No.
Nothing.
I actually don't consume a whole lot.
Coffee?
Yeah, I like coffee.
But I don't, I'm very funny with coffee.
It's like full cup, drink a third of it, throw it out, it gets cold.
Like I'll probably get through one or two cups of coffee a day.
But I have like nine.
They're always, you know, it's funny.
Back to childhood, I always had tea because I'm a Russian family.
We always had tea around consulate.
constantly.
There was always tea.
Got home from school
3 o'clock at the morning.
Want tea?
Tea?
Not like water.
Tea was a big thing
in Russian culture.
Russian tea room
like that kind of stuff.
So I think something happened
that that's like comfort for me.
I always need a hot beverage around me.
There are times when I have
full cups of coffee and tea.
I don't even take one sip.
The concept of it being there
is warming to me.
So yes, I drink coffee.
But no, I think my big ones are
sleeps huge.
That was why I always laugh
when we're like,
Gary's going to get you burnt
out. I'm like, I'm the one fucking tell everybody I'm sleeping
seven, eight, nine hours a day.
I've never been like, like, there's moments
to sleep four hours. Like, if you have a big project
coming out, when V-Rens was going, I was fucking
not sleeping a lot, like, I was in it.
That's a couple weeks. Like,
I sleep a lot, but I have,
the reason I'm good is I have deep
peace of mind. I'm not anxious.
Like, everyone's like, I'm in a cold plunge, and I'm going to
ground, and I'm going to meditate,
and I'm going to Joe Dispenza.
Are you about Lord? Do you about Lord?
Yeah, and Mona, like, like, everyone, and everyone. And Mona, yeah. And everyone. And I'm like, yeah, I just already know. So there's no, like, healthy breakfast. There's no workout you do every day. There's no electrolyte water. I want to talk about this for a second. I've no idea what that even means. I've heard of electrolyte water. But if you told me for a billion dollars, Gary, tell us what electrolytes is. I'm like, I don't know. Some marketing thing they came up with the cell more water. There's one thing you haven't done for us yet. And I just play couples therapists. And what I tell Lauren all of,
time because, you know, similar to Mona, she's always telling me to prime with all these
18 things. And what I'd say to her sometimes is like, I'm good. Well, you've clearly been doing,
unlike me, I do something. You've definitely been doing the face stuff. I've been doing this.
I do it. I know it. I do it. I do a lot of the stuff. Because you're vain. He loves his
beauty. He loves his beauty. Listen, I'm quarter Japanese. He's a quarter Japanese. He loves his beauty.
You're right. Right. You're fucking. There's the manscaper. There's the colostrum serum.
But I will say with some things, though, I'm like, listen, I just already feel good and feel happy.
You don't need to do the 18 things that like to get there.
Oh, my favorite thing on Earth is when I'm working and Mona's reading something and she'll get excited about something.
She's like, da-da-da.
And she's like, wait a minute, you're already like that.
Like, I wake up.
What do you mean?
I wake up.
Look, on the physical things, like I will be very wrinkly like my dad.
I've never done a single thing for my face and I'm so animated.
I will be a wrinkle monster.
I'll give you an ice roller after.
I don't give you an ice roller.
I don't give a shit.
But so the physical stuff.
Look, I definitely, I work out, I'm eating so much better.
I eat better now because Mona took me to, it's not a calories game, it's a clean game.
So I'm putting better stuff in my body, yes, I'm talking about the mental game.
The mental game is the game.
That's what I'm talking about that.
Yeah, the mental game is perspective.
Like, the mental game is self-esteem.
The mental game is ready, the mental game is very simple.
I'll save a lot of people a lot of time and energy.
Go.
Do you value other?
people's opinions more than you value your opinion of yourself. A lot of people do. I know.
And I'm telling everyone, don't do that. How, how, what are some tangible things that they can do?
Don't do that. Sounds easy, but for a lot of people, very hard. Everyone's different. For some people,
it is years of deep therapy. For other people, it's it's meditation. But I believe the secret to
What I'm saying is grounded in one thing.
How much negative or positive information are you consuming?
If you are somebody right now who struggles with those insecurities,
I believe the formula has to do with your consumption of information.
Who is in your ears?
What is in front of your eyes?
People love to shit on social media.
Do you know that I can't find a single positive thing on mainstream media?
can't find positive thing on mainstream media.
Of course.
Go read any newspaper, any magazine, any television show, radio show.
It's all negative.
People gave us a lot of shit.
We said we don't have cable television in the house anymore because that's reason.
I also don't watch people's Instagram story.
I star only positive content.
You're on my star.
You can pick and choose and curate what you want to see.
I don't buy it.
My fucking content is rainbows and sunshine and the Knicks and the Jets and garage sale.
Right.
Like, happy things.
Happy things.
Social media exposed us.
It didn't change us.
And I can find unlimited positive shit.
I'm so grateful for social.
There are people like you out there.
You don't get airtime on CNN or Fox.
It's too positive.
You're not selling fear.
You're not selling rubber necking.
So they need to be mindful about what they're consuming.
I believe that that is the point.
And I think that starts actually in a very close place,
not on your phone and not on your TV.
I think it starts with your relationship.
I believe there are many people that should get divorced.
Yeah.
That aren't because their spouse is super negative and they're dragging them down.
I think that before you do that, couples there's other things to do.
I'm hoping not people are like, well, yeah, yeah.
Don't do that, don't take me out of context.
But I believe a lot of people have parents that are 70 that have been negative all 40 years
of their childhood and life and I don't think they should talk to that.
If your mom is extremely negative and you talk to that, and you talk to you,
to your mom four times a day
because you're trying to re-hebitilitate your mom.
You only have so much energy.
And you're 40 now.
I think you should talk to your mom twice a week
instead of four times a day.
And you should reallocate those hours
to maybe your positive husband,
to maybe your positive oldest son,
to maybe a positive podcast.
What you consume dictates what you think.
It's why the world's changing so fast right now.
There's so many new voices,
so many new thoughts,
so many different thoughts.
It's why the world is changing.
I believe the way that people get into a better mental place
is by consuming practical optimism.
Not delusional.
I remember when the secret came out.
Everybody kind of like misunderstood that book.
They were like, if I just sit on my couch and pray for money, I'll get money.
I'm like, I don't think I didn't read the book,
but I was like, I have a funny feeling that's not what the book says.
No, no, practical optimism.
I talk about a lot of optimistic things, but it requires
action. When you read the new book.
I know. Tell us about that.
Day trading attention is hard.
When people hear me
talk about lots of content and this
and you have to know how YouTube shorts works for like,
it's hard. Same with what we're talking
about now. It's hard to tell your mom
who you've been enabling for 40
years that you need to cut her out a little bit.
I don't mean cancel your mom.
I mean regulate.
It's hard to quit a job
that pays you $200,000 a year
without knowing your next job,
but your boss and your co-workers are so toxic,
it's been draining you for eight years.
I don't think that's easy.
Not when you have a mortgage.
Not when you have college bills coming up,
but I can tell you it's the answer of how to get happier.
The point is, is it all starts with you
and you have to take extreme accountability
for your own life and look around
and really look at the content you're consuming,
look who you're around and actually say you have the power.
There's not one.
person's excuse that I'm willing to listen to for a sustained time.
I'll be there for compassion up front.
But eventually, we're going to have to talk about what are you going to do about it.
My friends, there's a lot of you doing this.
Listen, if you're listening right now and you're 35 to 65, I'm going wide.
You're in the era of where you have to stop blaming your parents for everything.
Here's even younger.
Yeah, and I'm just, I'm being, look what I'm doing.
I'm being very empathetic.
I'm starting just at 35.
That's old though.
I get it, brother, and I'm with you,
but I'm going to be incredibly compassionate.
If you're 35 to 6, forget about the 25, 28 years.
You're still kind of, like,
most people on earth 35 to 65 continue to blame their parents
for what hasn't worked out.
And what I'm saying to them in the middle of this podcast
is, hey, it's time to let that go
and ask yourself, what are you going to do about it?
Because let me give you an insight.
Your parents, they had parents too.
and I love that you love Grandma Fran
but Grandma Fran's the one who fucked up your mom
for you to be mad at your mom
No by the way before we shit on Grandma Fran
I don't know if you know about great grandma Gertrude
But she fucked up Grandma Fran
And so like this lack of compassion or empathy
For our parents who also got fucked up
And this inability to be accountable
For our ability to fix our fucked up
Like you have generational shit
Be the one that stops it
Or just be a contributor to the shit that's bothered you your whole life
either you're a part of it or you break it.
Yeah, you know, it's so funny.
You mentioned your dad was 44 when you guys were working together,
and I think about now having kids of my own.
My mom was 22 when she had,
and you're blaming you.
I just know what she's doing.
You're blaming these people.
I was on the bar with my tits out at 22.
Jesus, you're fucking lucky that your mom was like even responsible.
You still kind of are.
No, but the,
that's why he likes you.
Yeah, of course.
To think, I saw, I went to that bar.
To think that like we're blaming people.
that were that age
and they were, in many cases,
younger than us
for all of our problems later in life,
it's crazy to me.
Yes, and you combine that
with where we are now
with entitlement at scale
where we think
everyone should see the world
the way we see it.
When you guys move from L.A. to Texas.
Oh, God.
Oh, God is right.
I am so sure.
I remember hearing that.
You know, either Fremona or seeing it,
I'm like, oh, these poor two
are about to get so much judgment
from so many,
because you did it a little bit earlier, right?
Yeah.
And I'm like, look,
everyone's allowed to do like I don't understand the audacity of thinking your opinions on other
people's lives are like right oh yeah we got lots of shit or like just think about I mean we've done
same people reach out and ask me how I like it and what's your neighborhood to live at this point
now it's always that it's always that 800 of these and we've had people here and here
all sides of the political spectrum and it's so funny because we have somebody on the right
people get really flustered we have someone the left they get really flustered I'm like listen
we just want to listen to people and understand what makes
them tick. Look, me
in the middle and they're trading attention as
purple for a reason. I'm obsessed right now with
purple. I'm so tired of red and blue.
I think most are. It's such horseshit.
Purple's royal.
It is. Purple is royal. I also think the other
thing that happened. You know what really bothers me
the most about the extreme red and blue
of our society? We lost civility
in it. Oh yeah.
We're just so nasty. And politicians
are to blame. I'm so upset with our
politicians. Their lack of civility towards
each other completely trickled down.
I think it's such a shame.
It's such a shame.
We have to get to a point to where people are able to change their mind.
Well, that's for damn sure.
Like, we get so stuck in the mud and the opinion.
You have to be able to evolve your opinion.
I'm pumped when I change my mind.
It's amazing.
I love it.
I mean, it's gross.
There's no room to change your mind anymore.
You know what the scary part is?
People change their minds on things to be fully red and blue.
I've watched friends in my circle.
I don't, by the way, on the record,
I don't judge my friends that are red or blue.
I really don't.
I'm super purple and I'm like,
because I'm purple, I get it, I get it, I get it.
I don't like that, I don't like that.
Like, I voted for both parties in my whole life.
Like, I'm like pretty fucking purple.
I just hate the idea of like having to pick aside
without knowing what the issues are.
Well, the part that really fucked me up
was like five, six years ago
when it was really starting to get full momentum.
I was like, oh, people are changing their minds
to be red or blue.
Yeah.
I literally watch people change their mind
on abortion or gun control or big issues.
I know them.
I'm like, I know what you've thought.
about this. I'm like, wait, you feel the peer pressure to be fully one or the other. That was sad.
The extremities pulled everybody in. We'll go back. By the way, the 1960s were like this.
Like, it ebbs and flows. It ebbs and flows. I always believe in people. Think about how many
bad business decisions were made because of that as well. Oh, God. Look, business to me is a whole
different game. You're a media guy. Well, here's my thing. Everyone now asking their businesses to be
political is the funniest shit I've ever seen. Please go off on that. You know, I want you to go off on
because...
Businesses are not capable of it.
Of course.
Businesses don't have the luxury
of what media, governments,
teachers, academia,
like businesses have to either live or die.
It's merit.
Businesses are like sports.
Like, businesses have
thousands of employees
that see it both ways.
What would you like them to do?
I want to speak on Texas.
It's crazy.
Running this company,
half Texas, half L.A. during the pandemic.
You're in fake Texas.
Austin is not necessarily in Texas.
Real Texas people
will look at and say this isn't Texas.
Exactly.
Exactly.
But it was funny because you're like, half the company says,
if you do this thing, we're out,
the other half of the company saying,
if you don't do this thing, we're out.
I'm like, guys, like, I'm like everyone.
My point of view is like, everyone should be out.
I'll start all over.
I'm not, I'm not, how can you appease everyone?
Carson knows.
We've done it.
I sat down and said, listen, if you guys, like,
if people got to go, they got to go.
I can't, you know, I can't micromanage everyone's personal lives.
And by the way, I also am empathetic to everyone.
Of course.
I'm, I get it.
But like, anyway, listen, back to meet me in the middle,
real quick, because I really know there's a lot of young parents here, and I'm pumped because I think a lot of them will pick this book up.
My favorite part is when they read it to their kids, they're going to have their own ahas.
We're going to read it tonight to our kids.
No, that's not the real one, is it?
We don't have the real one.
No, you have the fake one.
You have the fake one.
Yeah, it's not out yet.
I don't even have it.
I don't even know what the fuck's in.
There is stuff in it.
Oh, it is the real one?
Oh, fuck, I want that.
Yeah, we'll buy it.
How many?
A thousand?
We'll buy it.
We'll buy it.
Listeners?
We'll buy a bunch
of the listener.
What are these?
How many listeners you have?
What are these books?
Hopefully not 40,000.
We have 100 listeners.
No, just kidding.
Good.
We can do a giveaway.
I'm kidding.
We can do a giveaway.
We can do a giveaway.
I'm really genuinely joking.
That actually can be fun.
I'm genuinely joking.
I'm genuinely joking.
I'm not joking.
Buy 5,000.
No, no.
All right, here we go.
Day trading attention,
how to actually build brand and sales
in the new social media world.
What can people who are listening
expect? What value are they going to
Whether they're a creator on day seven of being a beauty influencer or they're the CMO of Coca-Cola.
Okay.
This is the modern Bible on how to be as good as possible at marketing.
I believe this has a dark horse chance of being the signature book.
I don't know what the signature book of TV advertising was in 1968 when TV had just passed radio.
Like Ogleville on advertising.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
I don't know what it is.
I don't want to speak as if I do.
my hope when I wrote it,
and I think it has a 5% chance,
because it's hard to pull off what I'm about to say.
But this book has the potential
to be the true Bible blueprint
architect for the next five years
of social media marketing,
which I believe is by far now
the most important form of marketing and advertising.
And so I wrote it with the intent
that if you are literally doing 100,000 a year
selling nail polish
because you're making good TikToks,
I can win for you.
for you.
If you're the CMO of Coca-Cola or BMW,
I can win for you and the most interesting crowd, you too.
Now, unlike when I wrote Crush It,
even unlike when I wrote Jab, Jab, Jab,
there are a lot of people that actually know
what the fuck is going on.
I wanted to write a book for even that set
that I just know that you two, and you're in it,
and I'm watching you from afar and I know what's going on.
Like when you really read it, you're like,
fuck, we're not doing that or shit.
That's why our fucking-
I already found five things I'm not doing it.
It's funny you mentioned that.
I also think that, like, you get comfortable.
You even said it.
You get comfortable on one platform and you want to settle in and you want to get cozy.
I constantly want to be challenging my perspective and my point of view.
And you always seem to do that for me throughout all your books.
Thank you.
I'm also in a great place of my career right now.
Not only am I still Gary B, who wrote Crush and all that, but now Vayner X is huge.
We're 2,000 people.
It's global, right?
Like, we're huge in Asia.
We're huge in Latam.
We're huge in Europe.
We're big.
We're spending billions of dollars in media on behalf of clients in social.
Spend more with your media.
You know what I mean?
We're going back and forth.
Look at it.
We are really, really in it.
And I'm at the helm of that.
So it's almost like my dream of what I wanted to do,
which was if I'm the emperor, like in Star Wars, of social media,
if I build the Death Star Vayner Media,
that can point at anything and blow it up.
And that's what I've been doing for the last 15 years quietly.
And you know what I would say,
on a smaller scale, sometimes we go and speak to students at schools and mostly get brought in
to talk about like this whole world we all now live in because a lot of students, they're just not taught
in school, right? Of course. I at my stage, my creative, I'm looking for books like, like, what do you
read that's relevant? It's hard. It's hard to find. But this is very relevant to-
ready for this? So I think in the shower like a son of a bitch. Like it's my single favorite
place to think. But I also take very fast showers. So I have like blitzes of like four-minute
like thinking. Literally this morning, literally this morning in the hotel. I was like, oh,
I need to get serious
because I knew I was doing today
a bunch of book stuff
I was like fuck
I need to get serious
with college professors
this is the curriculum book
yeah this is the curriculum
yeah this is the curriculum
I did a great job with that
on maybe Jab Jab Jab
one of my books I went Ham on
thank you I don't remember
this is the one I'm supposed to do with
but I love this from like any stage
and even for Lauren and I
we will get value from this now
and there's not a lot of people you can go to
that know their shit in this space
does that make sense
100%
like you can read about a lot of great
executives but they haven't done
in this way.
And even me who's putting out
a lot of good content every day
to help everyone good,
a book, I can really sit down
and like nail it
because you're getting clips of me.
Hot takes, quick thoughts,
but I was able to go platform by platform.
I mean, for example,
you two would explode on LinkedIn organically.
Oh, you're right.
Organic clips of this podcast
on LinkedIn would fucking crush.
Taylor, you listen to that?
And that's not something
I think is top of mind.
Like that's not how people are thinking.
Like this kind of podcast on LinkedIn,
what are you talking about, Gary?
Yes, because there's a lot of attention on it.
There's a lot of young professionals on it.
And some people don't like social media
so the only place you can fucking find them is LinkedIn.
I'm platform agnostic.
I can't wait to be on this show in 20 years
and say, you guys are still doing social media?
Like, I don't give a fuck about social media.
Be the next thing.
I give a fuck about attention.
Where's the attention?
And one day that's going to be in VR,
or AR or some shit we don't even know.
This just, by the way, if I wrote books in the early part of my career,
I would have had a book called Email is King.
Right.
I would have been like searching for search.
Right.
You know, I would have been like doing like websites are wonders.
AdWords for days.
Yeah.
I'm putting it out there that one day could be in 10 years,
but I'm putting out positivity that skinny confidential
is going to hire Vayner for my product line.
I love it.
I'm putting it out there.
Gary V,
thank you for taking time.
Thank you.
I'm going to do a TikTok with you for two minutes.
I want to make sure I'm fitted into your schedule.
Go watch my TikTok.
Where can everyone buy your book, your kids' book,
where can they find you, all the things?
If I have not accomplished that yet,
then I've done a bad job.
I think everyone listening to this is going to be very capable
of finding whatever they want to find.
So I appreciate you for that,
but I'm going to leave it at that.
One of my last things to say,
one of my, you just remind me,
favorite things you ever said,
one time someone asked you a question,
you said, G-O-O-G-L-I.
I used to use that as a good stick in my keynotes.
I was like, because I would talk,
you know, I was realizing when I was giving talks,
I'd be like, you know, like, I'm like,
okay, what you got to do on LinkedIn?
And people are like, well, how do you make newsletters
on LinkedIn?
I'm like, I got you.
And I remember the first time I did,
it was a huge crowd.
Might have been south by south.
It was a, I just remember it was a big ass crowd,
10,000, not like 100.
And I was just like, all right,
everybody take out your bed.
be like, here we go. G-O-G. I mean, this is what get this career students. But Gary,
how do I run ads on TikTok? If you don't know that you can Google that, then we're in big
trouble already. Forever student. Thank you, Gary. For the man. Thank you.
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