The single most important thing in all of marketing is, first and foremost, organic social media. Then everything else, social media organic, more important than commercial, more important than your e-mail newsletter, more important than a billboard, more important than hiring Beyonce to be in your Super Bowl spot, more important to anything else. If you are not the best in the world at organic social media, I'm talking cross-platform. I'm talking SnapSpotlight, I'm talking Instagram, I'm talking YouTube proper, YouTube shorts, I'm talking podcast, I'm talking news, I'm talking for real, for real.
Attention is the number one asset. This is full circle for me because my dad gifted me a 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 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, you know, it's like, I mean, I was at DoorDash yesterday, this gets 32, it 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, Michael Rubens, fanatics Super Bowl party, the bougie one, like this woman comes up, excuse me, his wife, and goes, you need to meet someone. I'm like, of course, she's like, tell 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 DoorDash. And we were hanging out, we were chopping it up, and not only, I'm in a very wild part of my career, watching all of you, 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 airport, literally on the way here, we're working on the Vee Friends theme song and music for the cartoons that are coming out, and the music group, the team that brought them in, 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 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, to 28, or now 43, and then 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 me, I believe. I think what stands out for me is that that book was so different than anything that was on the market, 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 that things are interested in at scale, and people shit on me heavy when that book came out. It came out in 09, I wrote it in 08, this is like 15 years ago now. How did you have a nose for that? Looking back, because now you have the perspective.
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'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.
How about 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'm very good at that.
I mean, you think about your careers. You know that I was the loudest unmusically. Oh, it's like, this is what I do. Like, I'm that guy.
There is, I was, just think, I've 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 so critical in our careers and development. And I was thinking the last time we sat down, it was actually the very first thing I ever did publicly ever.
Was it your show? It's not gone. It's not gone. It's not gone.
It's not gone. It's not gone. It's not gone. It's not gone.
It's not gone. It's not gone. It's not gone. It's not gone.
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 remember now.
I was like, what do you keep matching other jackets? I'm like, what was the strange looking? Yeah. 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 L.A. all the time and we would listen to the ask Gary V.
Show. You and some other guys. It was like, I remember trying to think, I was kind of an operator behind the scenes guy, but I remember listening to you like that format. Like, I can do that.
you know, it's interesting. I'm an operator. 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 try to give love just like I did with you. I continue to do that. Even at this place in my career, like random 15 minute meeting with some kid that's like, I love it. I love the come up, right?
And the amount of people that come into VaynerMedia 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 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.
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 thing. The thing people see is the side thing.
And I saw that with you and I was like, okay, 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 I was a young guy 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 nurse. 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. 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 & Game 1 Pepsi and Fnatic's like, we're it, like I was just in Miami at PossibleCon. Like everyone knows an advertising, the Mad Men, like the people that do the advertising for BMW and for the Gap and for Exxon.
Like the biggest that world, everyone knows the wrong 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 date trading attention, which is the follow-up of Jeff, Jeff, Jeff Ray 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 the DailyVee for the social media clips, not for the long form. I even still do podcasts as a guest because Dustin's sitting right there, de-rocking it, and we're gonna clip it, and there's gonna 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 than anything else. If you are not the best in the world and organic social media and the way I define that is because I know YouTube and paying attention for a long time is I'm one of the few humans that equally has five billion 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 news, 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'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 can 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 their 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 a year on YouTube. What a joke. Think about what a joke that comment is now.
I think people are, 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 really change either, right? And then other things that happen, especially for influencers and creators, is they get good at something and they wanna hold on. The reason so many people fucked up, TikTok moment was they got a million followers on Instagram and they wanted to stay there because it felt cozy because their ego liked the blue checkmark and a million followers. So they didn't start setting up shop on TikTok because they didn't wanna 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.
Why I stream for 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 10, 42. Like, 28, 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 and that's 400.
But like, I'm not clicks. I'm not bugga. I'm not in a rush. 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, you know, there's a lot of people out there selling a lot of stuff. And, you know, get rich, quick schemes and what to do. And I wasn't like, if they're just selling you on the idea that like they're selling you on something, they don't have the actual infrastructure. This is my biggest argument in marketing right now.
There's a lot of marketing professors and pontificators. I'm like, if you're so good, what isn't your book cell? Like this, you know, to your point, get rich, quick, we all know that that's played out. Like people still get away with it, but like people are getting smarter than that and they're not as loud in as noisy as they used to be.
It smells. There's something that smells about it. It's just a simple question. Like if you're so good at marketing, what isn't your shit cell?
Right. Like every author that writes a marketing book that the book doesn't crush is a weird situation. Like if you're supposed to be so good at marketing, why doesn't your books out? 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. I'm going to take a happy 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. So they just want to know who to have? 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. You're going out and hunting. Right. 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 market and brand, it comes to you, right? 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, Vayor Media 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. 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. I think come to me, bitch.
Of course. You know it too. We're really bad at the sell. Me too.
By the way, I don't like selling either. I don't like it. It's why I like marketing and branding so much. It's the thing about what just happened to the meta here.
Gary, what would be a win for you? Eh, let me do branding. Let me bring value to the audience. Then of course I'm going to want to buy the kids buck.
Then of course I'm going to want to buy. Like I don't want to say buy my book. Like no shit. Like when people go to the Today Show or podcast, like what the fuck are they doing?
No shit. What do you think nobody understands? Like you go to 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? As opposed to other people. I look at it at this point as do I have something to say that's going to create more of you too.
The reason the trading tensions fund for me, I don't know if you've gotten to skim it or read it yet. Okay. It's because even you two that are winning, there's real shit in there that you don't know. Oh yeah.
For sure. By the way, I have all your books. It's not just this, but it's all your book. 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.
You know, Epic, that is for me. You also don't write books for money. Well, sure. But that's sure.
I think it doesn't feel like that. Of course not. It's not enough money in it for me. Right.
But it seems like you do it because you. I want to be historically correct and I want to impact. I want the intoxicate. To me, a billion dollars is intoxicating.
You two looking at me with the admiration for 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 different now.
Cause 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. Everybody talks.
Everybody knows each other. And not only do we know people that you've partnered with, but we know people that have worked with you and for you. And of all these years, I've never heard anyone say a bad word about it. Did you just rate this singer 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, like Sam, he, like any, like, 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. Like, hey, Dustin, I need you to do that. Like, if I love you, well, 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 to say remarkable things about me. The point one that could be like, eh, I couldn't tell them they stunked and I surprised them when I fired them.
And so I have resentment towards me. And so that, that's things, because what you just said, that 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. Well, I think it's important because again, like coming up and figuring this out, and it's very fast pacing, 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 that 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 and the way you are people, because you never know, that in turn 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 everybody works for them hates them. Yeah. That's where you meet some people.
And you know, once you get in circles, you get to the truth. Well, and you podcast with someone that you think is AB. The best. And you see the way they treat people in the office or the way they treat their audience.
So it's so good. It's devastating. Never meet your heroes. Yeah, sometimes.
I mean, some are great. Agreed. Some are great. 80% versus 12% is a disappointing thing for all of us.
I'm disappointed too. You know, on the career side, right? You start to see people that 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, and there's a course. What is that?
It's not super complicated. Most people have bad behavior from their own insecurities. Where do you think that comes from with you? Because the luck of the DNA drawn?
I'm parenting. My mom crushed it. But I also know that I have siblings and cousins and friends. I have children.
I see how the world works. It's not just parenting. It's not just environment. Like I'm 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 get things wrong, consequences. Modern parenting has fucked up. So I wrote me in the 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. They become delusional. Kind of entitled. Delusional.
It's a fine line. Yes. The entitled 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?
We did an episode one time on hustle culture and it was like a big hot button issue. And our perspective is you've got to put in the fucking work. I think what happened there in my career was somebody wrote a medium article called hustle porn and put me as the. I didn't know 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 to, but it was easy for me. Two things happened with that one. The most remarkable thing was I talked about it once on podcast and because there were 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 sit in the end 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.
That used me. And then 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 these and that'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 mine box 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 it. I am an all time, remarkably poor student. From freshman year to high school, at North Hunterton High School, in New Jersey. I did not do one piece of homework in four years 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 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 try to throw the hustle thing at me, I was like, the receipts exist.
Go watch my content. I don't work 18 hours. They make a million dollars for what? So the real message is that if you can turn your work into something you absolutely love that becomes your hobby, then it doesn't feel like works.
You're not really hustle. You're hustling, but you're not really makes it feels fine. People like Gary, I just said this in another pocket. I said this way.
I'm like, yeah, but Gary, I work nine to five. I've got 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 were fucking miserable. I also disagree. You do have to hustle.
Like what? Do you like not disagree with you? No, no, no, no. You're 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 trail. So that was just the slang word of hustle.
This is the biggest issue with cancel culture. It doesn't factor in intent. 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's not sustainable. It's not right.
Yeah. It's why, honestly, we never, I think it comes with having a lot of people in that moment to be new or just getting started finding it. We've been doing this for so long now, not as long as you, that it felt like a blip in time. 100%.
And I kept looking like this is, 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. Don't have time to just use hard work and work ethic. I don't give a shit what they want to cancel. It has nothing to do with me.
Yeah. Here's the problem with 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 Vee. 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 between friends and 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. 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 C.O.A. To the point where I'm actually debating maybe not doing it anymore. Because now with 2,000, when it was 50 people, 80 people and everybody was 22, we were cruising.
Nobody's parents were doing it. Everyone was 22. Nobody's parents were dying. Nobody lost a baby.
We were cruising. I wasn't just the best. Meaning I'd have to hear about it once every few months and I would lean in now with 2,000 people, 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 team. They get murdered. Murdered.
In Brazil. Columbia. 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 capitalize. I think that's what I'm great at. I can deal with it.
My bad days are only left for cancer, death, terminal illness, car wreck, burned 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. I think a lot of people starting out with that perspective. Some people get, as we've become parents and been married on this, I really lean into the same theory. If something happened to her or my kids, that's a real thing.
Look, you're losing a little money. Even if it's going to the full extreme, you guys are really in it right now. You're on the prospect of building your empire, right? What if we went to Dead Zero tomorrow?
Devastating. You've worked really hard. I figured out. You have to have that.
You can't be scared. You don't mind? Because you have no choice. 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, never do about it. Yeah.
I mean, they're the 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 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 was it with my health and wellness from 28 to 38. It's about fear. It's about, 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? Because I'm sorry. It's not that I work that much more or less.
My efficiency is like a fucking gangster. You know what my calendar looks like. No, can we see it? Yeah.
This is my dream. My calendar is super early. And look at this, 15 minutes, 40 minutes, 30 minutes. There's no lunch.
There's no, if you've always done it this way. Uh huh. You guys know like four, 45 to five, 15 to five, 30, 40 to four. Like it is.
Do you have something in there that's four, 45 to four, 46? It's like, it's like, it's very real to me. Like shower in there. My efficiency.
Me learning as an operator that everyone 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. I need 15 minute meetings. Almost every 30 minute 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. I'm like eating the pineapple for a few minutes and making a coffee. And all of a sudden it's like two or nine. 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. I know they were trying to schedule hours or something like a 30. Because the point is like, on the hour, everyone does the round of introductions.
How was the weekend? And you also lose momentum in the conversation. It's like going to the gym for an hour, but not doing a single exercise problem. You don't have to hard stop because people don't 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? I don't know. They show up ready.
Listen, 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 the shit off. So you're like sorry. I have to go to my next meeting.
Bye. It's even weirder than that. I think that to the point I'm making, which is if this meeting is 12 to 12 15 at 12, 13, everyone's brains is like this meeting is doing this long. It's not like someone's going to pontificate about anything.
I don't know. Okay. I'm going to take this 15 minute meeting. 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 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. A minimum day for me is 10 hours of operating.
No lunch. I barely go to the bathroom. It's 10 hours. Right?
Right? Every day. Every day. That's the minimum.
But I'm in or I'm out. Like on the weekends, I'm Sia. Vacations, Sia. Jets game, double Sia.
Like you can tell me the world's burning down like this game's not over yet. You know, like I carved 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, 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. 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 doing. I'm like, I'm not a passion. Like, what is the, what is the main theme that you're recognizing?
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.
But most people want is for you to agree to why they got unlucky or why it's not going well. If you look carefully at 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 Republican's fault.
It's Democrat's fault. It's my spouse's fault. It's mom and now the other big one. It's mom's fault.
It's mom's fault. It's everyone's fault. What about this? Like the thing that I'm usually trying to be like, usually where I go, depending on the tone and tone of the person.
You know, some people love a gym trainer that like really grinds you. Like, you know, 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 me. 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, 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. Like, can I speak to them?
Like, you know, I'm pretty 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 passion, but and compassion. But if that's a 45 minute combo, not a one minute combo, then at some point the story with that person, especially if it's the 18, it's let's say it's an employee and I'm in our 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 therapy, meditation, health and wellness, mentally and emotionally and physically. They've mainly got any others.
Humans are remarkable. 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. It's 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 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.
This is just life as basic as it 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 bubble on the road.
Only because they don't have context. Of course. Sure. Easy for me, Gary.
Let's talk about Gary. I am a great from the Soviet Union. Every minute where my mom, 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 work 14 at 16 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 it was grown and I went, every vacation I've ever taken in my entire adult life, I've had to think about responsibilities that were happening while I was on a fucking beach. So I promise you, I wasn't on a fucking vacation.
So thank you. Enjoy. Like fuck you. How about you?
Fourth kid in your family never had the responsibility. 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 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 unlit. You guys are broken down.
You're in circles. You know unlimited amount of people we know with money are more unhappy. One hundred 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. 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 Beyonce's life. How are you going to teach your kids this?
I want to know from my own. What are you doing that you and this book too, if you could talk about this as well? What are you doing for your kids? Just having conversations.
But don't forget, I'm not going to be the best, like there's different vessels. I'm going to be my kids dad. I'm definitely not going to be Gary Vee. I might be very effective for your kids.
I might be the perfect person for your kids one day. This is somebody we knew for a long time. They're going to think it's going to make me think I'm cool. It's happening right now.
For so many of my friends, they're 15 to 20 year old. They're the amount of texts 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 like dad.
We should do this. Even though mom was saying it the whole time, I can't be the, 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 going to be 50% of it because people, humans, when they grow up, dad, mom can only have so much leverage on them. So I can do dad shit there. I try to do dad shit for the internet. Older brothers.
You know, like I try to do it. I try to do it. I try to leave 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 people know my brother I talk about because I usually talk about business. As you know, I don't talk about my personal life. Yeah.
So usually my sister, nobody knows. My sister's the middle. Yeah. I grew up with my sister much more than I grew up with AJ.