In short
The GaryVee Audio Experience: Episode Summary
Episode Title
AI Won’t Replace You—Unless You Let It | Tea with GaryVee Ep. 73
Episode Description In this energizing episode of *Tea with GaryVee*, Gary Vaynerchuk dives into a myriad of topics through conversations with callers. The discussions range from building personal brands to overcoming imposter syndrome, and even the nuances of choosing between buying a house or starting a dream pizza shop. This episode is packed with practical advice and motivational energy aimed at inspiring listeners to take action rather than overthink.
Key Topics Discussed
- Overcoming Fear in Business: Gary emphasizes the importance of getting off the "ego train" and shifting to a growth mindset to scale businesses effectively.
- The Importance of Content:
- "Perfect" content can hinder progress; embracing imperfection leads to momentum.
- Engagement with your audience, especially the first few fans is more valuable than seeking large follower counts.
- Education and Career Choices:
- The relevance of traditional college education is questioned, especially for creative individuals.
- Artificial Intelligence & Brand Building:
- AI is changing the landscape of content creation and search. Emphasizing the need to adapt and innovate.
- Dealing with Setbacks:
- Gary offers advice on how to bounce back from business failures (e.g., an Etsy shop shutting down).
- Local Marketing Strategies:
- Utilizing repurposed content and local ads to generate leads effectively.
- Soft Skills in the Workplace:
- Advocating for soft skills and finding companies that value them.
Callers & Key Takeaways
- Valentin's Hiring Dilemma: Fear of micromanagement prevents business growth.
- Gary's Advice: Cultivate a growth mindset and invest time in training new employees.
- Jazz's Product Branding: Concern over how to subtly brand products.
- Gary's Insight: Subtle branding is more effective; think like a consumer.
- Miguel and Client Retention: Reflecting on why clients have stopped working with him despite good results.
- Gary's Recommendation: Ask for feedback from former clients to understand their reasons.
- Alex on Soft Skills: Finding companies that value soft skills.
- Gary's Response: Emphasizes networking and speaking to people trusted within the industry.
- J.O.'s Business Decision: Torn between opening a pizza shop or buying a house.
- Gary's Strong Stance: Open the pizza shop; living in an apartment is sufficient for now.
- Trisha's Etsy Closure: Facing adversity with her Etsy shop and personal health.
- Gary's Offer: A chance to help her regain her business presence and personal resilience.
- John's Family Situation: Dealing with both parents having cancer while managing his career.
- Gary's Support: Focus on family time over career advancement for now; he stresses the importance of time and resilience.
Conclusion This episode is a powerful reminder of the importance of action over perfection, the shifting landscape of AI in business, and the value of human connection and personal growth. Gary Vaynerchuk's energetic approach encourages listeners to overcome fears, embrace their entrepreneurial spirit, and prioritize their well-being and relationships.
Final Thoughts
- Note on AI: Stay adaptable and innovative as AI evolves.
- Call to Action: Engage with your community and value every follower and interaction.
- Personal Branding: Focus on authenticity rather than the pursuit of perfection.
This podcast episode serves as a motivational boost for anyone feeling stuck or hesitant about their next steps, urging them to take action and embrace their path.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:28Good morning, good morning, good morning. He is official Mackenzie. What is the first question? Valentin says, my business partner and I want to hire more people, but what we do is extremely complex and we fear nobody would be able to do it on our level. We've been putting off hiring as we're afraid we'd end up spending way too much time micromanaging. Any advice? My advice is get off your ego train. What's her name? Valentin. And what's the partner's name? No partner. Valentin and partner get off your ego train and get into your growing mindset and get out of the defense you're on a football team and you're playing middle linebacker right now and cornerback you're a safety you're a defensive end become a quarterback a running back a wide receiver you're on straight defense McKenzie they're worried about wasting time for the opportunity to dramatically grow their business could you imagine if me and AJ sat here 15 years ago and said no one can do social media like us.
1:32Here's where people get confused, McKenz. You don't need your employees to be as good as you. They don't need to be at your level. It's called scaling. When I was building VaynerMedia, everyone's like, Gary, how are you gonna build this business? Everyone's gonna want you. I'm like, no, they're not. I'm gonna be involved a lot in the beginning. I'm gonna create a lot of osmosis. I'm gonna teach. And then you let the birds fly. This is incredibly grounded in two things, ego and fear. Fundamentally, you've got to put in the time to build someone up, then they quit, then they stink, then their spouse moves and they have to leave, and you take that micro L and you're building up the next person and the next person.
2:15It's called scaling a business. Let me ask what Valentin and her partner or his partner's alternative is. What, are we gonna sit around and ask Gary on the internet questions and do nothing about it? Yeah, so that's that, that's that. All right, who's coming on screen first? By the way, I have iced tea in my mug right now. I know I was late, that's on me, Pablo. That's on me, Dust, that's on me. But I want everyone to know this is the iced tea Gary Vee show right now because I was late and clearly this tea was poured early, early. Hello, who's on with me? Oh, that is Jazz, Jazz, what's good? Hi Gary, nice to meet you.
2:58Pleasure to meet you. How are you? Where are you? I can hear you. Okay. Where are you from? Good. I'm in Arizona. I pulled over to make sure I didn't miss it this time. I was on my way home from work. Well, it's great to see you 9-1-1. So I wanted to say thank you for, I'm listening to your passion and plea to do live social shopping. I didn't listen to you about TikTok, talk so I learned my lesson and I had my first sale a couple weeks ago so I'm making making progress I'm into the v friends community now so that's helping with streaming and all um so far is like my business question so I'm trying to help 901 dispatchers with positive sustainable wellness um so with the products I'm offering is like gratitude jars I'm gonna have like a journal some like words of encouragement cards so when I do get the products it's like I save up get the product save up get it but my question is or if it's something i should even worry about because it seems small and significant but at the same time i want to make sure i'm putting all the effort into the product yeah should i actually putting my like company name 9-1-1 initiative like on all of my products i get or does it matter like it's not like jane does like consulting services because like me i'm not the biggest fan when people do that but i think I want to make sure it has the most impact.
4:16Yeah, I think there's a subtle way to do it. I mean, even look at the hat I'm wearing right now, right? This is obviously Be Friends. It's heavy, resilient, because it's cool to wear. And then the little red devil on the side, right? So you could have it underneath here. You could have it in the back patch. On the mug, you could have it underneath, inside. On the journal, maybe when people open it, it could be on the inside cover, on the bottom of the left. So yeah, I think a little branding matters, because you don't want to be a private label company trying to build what you're building. But to your point, I think too many people blow it and they put their brand way too in the front.
4:51It makes it cheesy and nobody wants to rock it. Does that make sense? Yeah, exactly. Okay. So I think a subtle... You're not crazy. You're thinking exactly... You're actually thinking beautifully. You're thinking like a consumer. Right? Which is what you always want to do. The reason so much has worked for me is I always think about the customer as if I'm the customer. Like, what would I do as the customer? And I think most of us don't want over-branding on stuff unless we're completely in love with the brand. When we love the brand, when we love the brand, Jasmine, we wear a huge shirt that says polo.
5:29Fucking takes up half the shirt. When we don't like the brand, we don't want it anywhere, maybe on the back label, maybe on the inside, maybe somewhere else. Make sense? Okay, perfect. All right, thank you so much, Gary. Gary, I appreciate you. Thank you. You are very, very, very welcome. Everybody, thank you for joining Tea with Gary Vee. We are taking questions in the chat on WhatNot. So everybody watching on my other socials, on Instagram, on TikTok, I see all of you, but you can't ask your questions there. You have to go to garyvee.com slash whatnot to ask your question. And that's it. There we go, Brett Young.
6:03Brett Young said, don't yell at me. I'm on WhatNot now. Let's clap it up for Brett Young. Actually, let's chant his name. Brett Young, Brett Young, Brett Young. Hold on. Over 80 % of you did not chant name. Let's do it one more time. Brett Young, Brett Young, Brett Young. There we fucking go. That's what we do here when you move from Instagram to whatnot and you join us here. We clap it up and you chant your name. Clip that Brett Young, that's some viral fucking content. Mackenzie, let's move it. Next is Miguel from Chile. Yes, Miguel. It's his 29th birthday by the way. Happy birthday Miguel.
6:44Miguel says, I'm building my personal brand around marketing and entrepreneurship, and I've co-founded my own digital marketing agency with a friend. Why do you think many of my clients have stopped working with me even though I've delivered good results? Because they don't think you delivered good results. When you're a service provider, you don't get to decide. They get to decide there's an old Russian saying my dad used to say to me all the time that translates to whoever pays for the music gets to pick the song there you go Dustin doesn't turn it a million times but I fucking love it it's just like so deeply ingrained right like you don't get to decide that you're doing good work instead of the audacity of saying or the delusion of saying we he did good work, what's happening?
7:30You need to go and ask them why. Speak to clients that have fired you and ask them why. Now if all eight of the people that have fired him, Miguel, said that they were running out of money, they had other issues in other places, then maybe he was delivering good work and there was consequences above his pay grade, not in his category of work. But people will tell you if you ask. McKenzie, most people are scared to ask someone why they're firing them. They lost the money and then they don't want their feelings hurt. And so that's a mistake and they need to ask. So that's what Miguel needs to do.
8:08Alright, who's next on the screen? Nice beard, bro. Hello, Gary. How are you? I'm well, brother. What's your name? Alex. Tremendous beard, bro. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. That's real work. Where do you live? Ohio. very nice what part columbus very nice great town been many times uh what's your question my brother yeah yeah i wanted to ask you i threw it up in the chat but i was wondering you talk a lot about soft skills like kindness empathy and doing the right thing and it's something i believe in a lot and i feel like i've got a lot of that inside of me and i'm working at a corporate job and they don't seem to value that as much so i was wondering your your opinion on like the best jobs that care about soft skills or like where to find those kind of things.
9:04Yeah, I would say that first of all, there is more companies out there that actually care about having a good environment than people realize. The problem is it's still one to 3 % of corporations. It's a low number by percentage, but it's a high number overall. The way you find it, I believe, is through word of mouth. of things you trust or people you trust on the internet that is a person that you've built a long relationship with. It's one of the reasons I love the community we have at VFriends. If you read the chat right now, you'll find this. VFriends, OGs that have been part of VFriends for the last three, four years.
9:44How much do you trust fellow OG, so you know, fellow OG VFriends? Let everybody know in the chat. I think you've gotta find someone you trust to tell you truth, because you know this. We've all been fooled by interviewing employees, right? They tell you, oh, it's a great environment here. We care about our people. And then a month into the job, you're like, motherfucker, this is a fucking cesspool of politics and fucking, you know, toxic. Yeah, so we get tricked. In fact, one of the biggest things, brother, that I get said when I meet new employees here is that they can't believe that our bullshit during the interviewing process was real and that we do have a good work environment.
10:21and so that's honestly the thing that I'm most flattered by. So what I would say is A, you should be looking for that and B, the way you find it is through a lot of networking in the Columbus, Ohio area, going to meetups, work stuff. There's a lot of ways to get out there and meet people and I highly recommend that in a real way because you'll get real word of mouth or doing real hard searches. People are telling the truth on Reddit and Twitter. You know that. Sometimes they're burning down buildings and being cynical, but I think you can get to the real answers and I think you just have to really go fight and look for them.
11:02But I think the mindset of knowing it's out there and the mindset of deciding you're going to actually put in the work, it's work. It's work on your end to go find the answers and the places and go on interviews. Even if you don't get a word of mouth recommendation, if you go on interviews, trusting your intuition and asking challenging questions when you're the interviewee, asking real questions, you know? And then, when you're interviewing, like if you interview at VaynerMedia, you can go on LinkedIn and DM people that work here and message like 50 people and be like, yo, is Gary Vee's bullshit real or not?
11:39And if you get like 48 people, be like, yo bro, you'll never believe it's fucking awesome. Like you're gonna be like, oh shit, it's awesome. And I think you've got to put in the work. Make sense? Yeah, that makes total sense. More networking. More networking, more interviewing, more looking for it. But like less talking about looking for it, dwelling on it, hoping for it, less thinking and more doing. Yeah, 100%. Thanks bro. Have the best day. Love you. I got a good one. I'm doing a giveaway. Is the mug ready for sale? Yes sir, I'm ready to post it. All right. What are these, 18 bucks? What are they, 18?
12:1918 bucks. 18 bucks. All right, we're putting, let's put up a hundred. We're only gonna put up a hundred of these mugs. I like the blue handle and the blue inside, but this one's autoed and I'm giving it away. All of you get over to garyvee.com slash whatnot to enter this giveaway, to enter this giveaway. Mackenzie, what's the question? Victoria and Francesca. Yes. Say we are in the hobby recommendation business. We've made money via ad networks off our Google traffic, but we're seeing a dip in that traffic. We started YouTube and Substack, but where do you see the future of search traffic going?
12:53Declining heavily. Guys, search is in trouble. Breaking news. Not April Fool's. Search is in fucking trouble. It's called fucking AI chat. Is anyone confused in here? Is there anyone confused in here? Victoria. You're not confused. Victoria's not confused. I mean, is anyone confused here? In the chat, tell me if you've now used chat GPT or perplexity or something else for searching something or even a social networks AI instead of going to Google. Have you done that? Say yes, I've done that. JJ is the only no I've seen. Everybody now does both. It's not like search, don't get it twisted. Search engines are not dead, they're dented and they'll continue to dent.
13:47When I told everybody to get on search engines, because I'm OG now, when I told everybody to get on search engines in 99, 2000, it was do that and have a yellow pages listing. But by 2005, it was like, you don't need a fucking yellow pages listing. I was with a bunch of residents yesterday. You saw this. More than half the room had never heard of the yellow pages. Mike felt old. How old are you? this 28 year old I saw the fear of getting older in his eyes yesterday I saw it in you Mike, I saw it, you were shook these children had never heard of the yellow pages and you realized you're not 18 anymore, you're 28 my friends, search is dented and if your business relies on search on Google AdWords, you better mix up your game, you better get very deep on brand building.
14:44Guys, Sid, you know this because you're the OG of this team. I've talked about brand forever. There are clips, and we need to find it where I talk about you have to build a brand because eventually things change, and I talk a lot about it with AI voice, right? Don't order pizza, order Pizza Hut, da-da-da. But I talked about search being one day search will change, and if you don't build brand, you're not going to show up because search is sales. Search is referral. Search is in deep shit, my friends. if your business relies on search, you better fucking get real serious. Mackenzie, give me another question.
15:17T with Gary V is live. We have Sandy. Sandy. Sandy says, I'm a recent stage four cancer survivor now, eight months in remission. I wrote a book during chemo to help others navigate the cancer experience. I'm doing all the things, newsletter, TikTok, posts, but how can I extend my reach more to get people to buy this book meant to serve? Well, first of all, Sandy, I love you and we all are very grateful that you're in remission. Let's clap it up for Sandy and her fight.
15:47Okunakou won the giveaway. Okunakou, let's clap it up for Okunakou. Okunakou with a huge win. Okunakou looks new too, that's a huge win. Sandy, if you're seeing this, get to DM team at Team Gary V on Instagram with your link. We're gonna give you a shout out to the book just to get some love in the next show. but for you directly to answer your question, the answer is more content. More social media content. Put up garyvee.com slash attention right now. Everybody, put up garyvee.com slash attention. A free 47-page deck. Of course, I want you all to buy Day Trading Attention, my new book. It's worth it, especially the audio.
16:27The audio book is fire because I read it myself. However, the book garyvee.com slash attention is the answer, Sandy, to your question. You have to get good at organic social media, organic social media, organic social media. Is this her? Great, everybody, here's her. There's Sandy, there we go. Sandy double underscore Dorote. She's at 1479. Let's get her up there. Let's clap it up for her. Let's clap it up for her. What a fight. Cancer's no fucking joke. Fuck cancer is right. Social, I'm not even acknowledging you. Dustin's being nice. If you're on one of my social networks and not on whatnot, garyv.com slash whatnot.
17:10Download it right now. Come into chat and say, Gary, I finally did it. Mackenzie, what's your question? Greg says, I have a small contracting business building backyard patios and decks. I post content regularly and some of my posts get a lot of views, but it's not translating to more local leads. How do I better reach my local market so I can get more leads? By taking the videos that do well and then converting it into an ad and running it on a 10 mile radius. Pablo, get over here. He's on Team Gary and he runs my ads. And I will say, and I could see the pride in Sid's eyes because we've done a lot of different people with paid and people have done nice jobs, but this man has come in and worked.
17:52I'm proud of you. And he's doing a great job. And I can tell you the variable of his skills, the ads will work better, the better you are. like it's as simple as that Pablo's good at it and he's going in and he's not just taking general direction for me and Sid and J-Mo and Will Taylor he's going in deeper he's making his own observations he's using his fucking brain which oh by the way if you're fucking scared of AI I've got great news to you if you use your fucking brain you'll be fine if you don't AI will fucking destroy you and pierce you through your heart but if you use your fucking brain you're good Pablo's using his fucking brain and he knows how to run ads in a 10 mile radius and he takes the content that does well and that's what Greg needs to do.
18:35Thank you, Pablo. Pablo will not get killed by AI. Other people in my company will. It's as simple as that. I'm being dead fucking serious. Everyone who's scared of AI, do not be scared if you use your brain. If you use your brain, if you're creative, if you're strategic, if you think AI is not a problem. In fact, it's going to be your enhancer. It's going to be your best friend. If you don't use your fucking brain and you're still a student as a grownup memorizing shit, parroting things that are said, but you have no fucking idea what is being said, lallygagging, cutting fucking corners, AI is coming.
19:12You're mad at your boss, you're scared of bosses catching you. You don't have to worry about bosses ever again, my friends. AI is gonna kill you. Good news, no more trying to trick bosses. It doesn't matter anymore. In the next decade, AI is just gonna kill you. So that's that, that's the fucking answer. Next question, put them on the screen. You got one or do you wanna go to McKenzie? We got one? All right. Daniel, nice, no worries mate, nice socks, Daniel. Oh, cheers. Nice shoes, baby. Oh baby, the Gary VK Swiss's, let's go my guy. Just turn, don't worry, just turn around the camera. Just turn it around physically.
19:52Okay, fuck. Bro, do your fucking laundry, bro. All right, my man. Fucking hell. I'm so nervous, man. Don't be nervous, bro. We're friends here. What's your name? Daniel said? Yeah, Daniel. Daniel. Where do you live, brother? I'm from Iceland. Iceland. Beautiful place. Pleasure. How are you? Pretty good. Pretty good. I'm pretty jet lagged. I came from a six-week trip from all around the world. Actually ended in New York. Plenty of awesome food. Did a lot of stuff. but my question to you, I don't want to waste your time. You're not wasting my time brother, we're here for you. Brother, nobody on this show wastes, take a breath.
20:31We're friends here. Don't be nervous, gather your thoughts. Let's be zen for a minute. Everybody, shh.
20:42Mr. Beast's cousin is on with us. All right, go ahead brother. So I've been following you for like nine years. And so it kind of shames me to say a little bit that I still struggle to like decide or like choose like what to do with my passion. Like I love cooking. I love eating. I've been thinking for so long to like do something around that and been trying to do a little bit like before COVID, but it's completely. It's okay. It's okay. How old are you? Oh, I'm young as fuck, I'm 30. Beautiful, great answer. And why were you able to afford a six week trip? Is that some Iceland shit? Where they like pay for you on your 30th birthday?
21:32Like that government? Oh man, I wish. Yeah, no, so I've been saving it for a long time. My best friend from New Zealand got married, so I went for a six week trip instead of just for a weekend, you know? It's a long way. Proud of you, good for you, good for you, brother. The fact that you saved and executed, that's incredible. Keep going. Yeah, I love food so much. So I was like, I took so much content. So do you post it? No, I've been like, well, just stories, but I've been like scared of posting it and making something. Because you're scared it's only gonna get 10 views and your self-esteem is gonna get hurt?
22:11Tell me the truth. Yes and all. I'm a little bit like, of course I'm scared of that. It's very human, but I'm a little bit like, I really want to do things in regards to that, but also in other things, but I'm not sure. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. What are you, wait a minute, did I hear that right? You're scared that if you post food content, that that locks you in and then you can't do skiing and you can't do VFriends cards and you can't do Icelandic adventure. You think by posting food for a, do you understand who the fuck I am? I made a thousand wine videos over six years. I made a thousand wine videos.
22:49I was literally referenced as the wine guy. When I started VaynerMedia, people were like the fucking wine guy thinks he knows marketing. Ha ha ha ha ha. Do you understand who you're fucking talking to? I made a thousand wine videos. Nobody even references me as a wine guy anymore. Fuck man. Yeah. Fuck man is right, man. The fuck are you? Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? You're talking to somebody who did five? years of wine and became famous for wine and now nobody how many people in the chat right now have no idea that I grew up with wine but no idea wine in the chat right now so this man sees it no idea wine no look at this yeah look at this look at this look at this look at this look at this yeah fuck are we talking about here Daniel from Iceland the fuck are we talking about post your Fucking food content.
23:37Post your food content, brother. Yeah, I will. Daniel, did you enter the giveaway? There's only 20 seconds left. 300 people did not enter the giveaway. I was the first one there, I think. Good, it's fucking free. It's fucking free. It's free. It's free. Man. Daniel, you know what else is fucking free? Daniel, you know what else is free? Posting on social media. Yeah. Oh, I can't help. Let's go. Drift. Hold on one second. Look at it, Drift XX it. Drift XX it with the win. Oh, I'm sorry, not Drift. Doctor Fix it with the win. All right, Doctor, here we go. We're opening the pack right now. Doctor one, Doctor, I'm opening it right now.
24:18Hold on, Daniel, it's very exciting. Let's see if Doctor can get something big. All right, the poised pug. I'm just warning everybody who's never seen VFriends cards before, you're about to become addicted. You're about to become addicted. Next. Next, skilled skeleton, that's a monster. Notice the numbers at the bottom, this is a TCG. This is a game, next. There we go, the articulate armadillo. Rips, admit, since the comic book offsite, you feel different about the articulate armadillo. And finally, oh! Big hit! Rips, pull it up on eBay, I want people to know what just happened. For the people, for almost 90 % of you, you have no idea.
25:04This is a short print. This is the Notorious Ninja. This is a massive hit for the winner. Rips, what does this sell for? 125 bucks? I think more. More? Wow. And I'm gonna, show me, show me. I don't, everybody's like, not true, not true. Let's show them the truth. Oh shit. That's it. These are sold, sold, sold. $193. $3.30, what a massive hit. Oh geez, tell them, this one's graded to a nine, 229. What a massive hit. All right, Daniel, do you understand? We're done here, brother. There's nothing to talk about. Stop bullshitting me. The fuck are you doing? What are you scared about getting famous for cooking content that allows you to not then do skiing content?
25:49Yeah, I wanna open up my coffee cart and I wanna grow gourmet mushrooms and show people the power that gourmet mushrooms have. but I don't know my food content. Do I need to have some back end or, no, not back end, some plan with my content or something? No. I can go for it. Go for it. Share your fungus. Share the fungus, brother. You want to show them mushrooms? Share your fucking fungus, my dude. Fuck yeah, man. Bro, if you don't post something in the next hour, I'm gonna literally get Russian hackers to destroy your life. Okay. Yep, I'm gonna send them to fucking Iceland. I know you will follow up on it.
26:30I will definitely follow up with you. You understand? You need to post a video in your main feed right now. Everybody here just said they wanna follow you. What is your Instagram? Lost Icelander, oh fucking hell, okay. Lost Icelander in one word, or is there any underscores, Lost Icelander? Right now I'm trying to remember. Somebody pull them up. Don't worry, don't lose your sense. Lost Icelander. Yeah. Lost Icelander. Can somebody confirm if it's Lost Icelander? Chef Lizette, I see you there. Can somebody, is it on Instagram? Lost Icelander. Is it? Yeah, so like lost, like I'm lost in the world or lost in what I'm doing here.
27:11Good news, brother. Brother, good news. You've been found. Daniel, Daniel, you've been found. You are no longer the Lost Icelander. You're the found Daniel. Bro, you've been fucking found. Man, fucking hell. You just gained 40 followers in one second and all these fuckers part of VFriends, they will hold you accountable. They're gonna DM you and say, you fucking asshole didn't post this hour like I told you to. My toes are shaking, man. Fucking hell. Okay. Brother, one thing you're doing poorly is your, is, let me see. Oh, I see what you're doing. The thumbnail you're using is not good enough.
27:54You gotta work on it. But I love the content. You and this lady just fucking sitting there. Like, this is good. Yeah. You and the girl fucking sharing drinks, right? Yeah. Bro, you're pissing me off. This excites me. This excites me. This excites me. Post more, brother. Wait a minute, what the fuck? This was in 2020? I was hoping you wouldn't. Yeah. That's only like nine posts ago. What the fuck are you doing? yeah i've just been doing stories for my friends and been like completely since before covid just been you know but fuck i have to put i have one hour now to post so that's right let's go my guy let's go love you gary thank you thank you found daniel found daniel formerly known as the lost icelander this is so fucking good fuck all right brother see you later all right see you all right here we go.
Read the full transcript
28:50Mackenzie, what do you got for me? Question from Toby, a 21-year-old female. Alright, real quick Toby, I'm sorry, real quick. There's a lot of you coming in that are new. Let's share the show, bottom right corner, share this in your group chat, your friends chat, or on Discord or Instagram. Toby, the female, good call out, because that's usually, I know, I actually know two Toby females, but predominantly a male name, so Toby, I'll be right with you. You want me to give that away? As a giveaway? Holy shit. It's giveaway time. Signed. Sign Gary Vee. Ooh, clouds and dirt. Signed, this is a massive giveaway.
29:28The K Swiss sneaker being given away. Is it the 001? This is the 001, isn't it? We're giving this away for free right now. Put it up. If I don't get a 712 entries, cause there's 715 of you right now, I'm gonna lose my mind. It's literally click a button, buy this and flip it for free money. We're giving this away, 374 in the giveaway. Please, everybody hit this McKenzie. Toby the girl, go. I'm in my third year of college studying psychology, but questioning if college is right for me. I'm partially here because it makes my mom so proud since she didn't get the opportunity. I feel like I can make a difference by getting a doctorate or master's degree, but I'm also a creative person and don't like feeling tied down.
30:07What should I do? Quit! Toby, are you in the chat? Is she in the chat? Do we know, or does that came from, we don't know where. Oh, Toby B, is that you? Toby V? Is that you? Toby V-E-E, which I love. Toby, is that you? It's me, yeah. Throw her up. Can you guys throw up Toby V-E-E? Toby, how are you? Hi, I'm good. All right, Toby, first important question to answer your question. Yeah. Are you collecting debt to be in college? Some. It's mostly my mom paying it off, but I'm fine. Understood. No bullshit. Toby, this is an important moment. No bullshit. what percentage of 100 % of why you're in college is deep down honestly, truthfully, because you know your mom is so proud because she didn't get the opportunity and you're fulfilling that?
30:52What percentage? Give me the real, real, real fucking number. Don't bullshit yourself and definitely don't bullshit me, Tove. 20 %? Okay, not bad, not bad. So not incurring huge debt. RNZY with a 68 person rate. RNZY. RNZY crew, perfect timing. we're giving away this signed sneaker right now, click it. If you don't even give a shit or know who I am, you could flip it for 100 bucks on eBay. Toby, why are you asking me this question? Right, so okay, so you're not collecting debt, you're only 20 % in because you're mom, is that 20 % enough to ask this question? Are you not enjoying it? You're a junior now.
31:30Listen, I fully believe more than half the kids on earth should not go to college. I believe that with my entire soul. I know that people get upset about that. I believe I'll be historically correct. I think 10 years ago when I was saying this, Tyler, Sid, you know, 10 years ago when I was saying this, I got shit on, now people are like, wait a minute. And I think in 10 years people are like, how the fuck did he know? I'm telling you, I really don't think it works for a lot of people. If you're creative, it's a real fuck show. This whole concept of like, well, you learn how to be social. You can learn how to be social not at fucking college.
32:02You can go fucking tour Europe or go to South America, go to Thailand and learn to be social. For some people it's remarkable. I want everybody to hear this nice and slow what's up D? I want everybody to hear me nice and slow for some people college is remarkable remarkable from the education thing need the degree to go into the field that is their destiny I do not believe college is bad for everyone I just don't think college is for everyone the way we were taught in the 70s and 80s now that we have the internet, social media the blockchain and all these technologies the thing that I'm most interested in is why did you even ask the question?
32:38I feel like a lot of others that you talk about, I feel like I have to have it all figured out. And at that point, I'm at that point where I have to start thinking about what my next step is. And so that's really where it's coming from. So you think it's more of a strategic, like what am I supposed to do? And like maybe quitting college is one of the things I'm supposed to do?
33:00Possibly, I thought about quitting college almost every year, but now I'm thinking I may just finish it because it'll make my mom proud. I get it, you're close. Again, if I'm going, but I honestly, like, I enjoy some of it, but I feel like this is not it for me. Again, but when I practice, I practice, like, later on, it's different than studying it, so I don't know. Look, I think you're so close that there's a part of me that says, like, if you're only 20 % in for your mom and you're not collecting debt, you could go into vacation mode and milk it because it's the last vacation of your life. The second you go into the real world, it's real world.
33:34no sleeping through classes no bullshitting no partying you can party and all that but you know what I mean so who won Frodo Frodo with a massive win an OG with a massive win congrats Frodo that's unbelievably exciting Johnny55 says take life advice from a kid whose only job he's ever had was working for his daddy oh I really want to have dinner with Johnny55 I wish he knew the truth Johnny55 you need to DM Sasha Vaynerchuk and ask him for the truth You mean from a kid who built his family's business? You mean from a rare person that actually decided to give 15 years of their life to build their family's business and then leave and start with nothing?
34:17Confusion in the system, excuses in the system. Toby, do your thing, do your thing. Yeah, I know, I like Johnny Five Five though. I like addressing it, because I respect it. You haven't shut up for 10 years, everyone knows what you think. That's also true, Johnny, good point. I've been consistent. Feeding the trolls this morning. I like Johnny Five, but I actually genuinely like Johnny Five Five. Toby, that's what I think, you know? Yeah, thank you, thank you. I really think that you could really take it as an opportunity to enjoy a vacation. I'm being dead fucking serious. That's what I did. You know, I went to college for my parents.
34:57Right, I heard, yeah. I went to four classes in four years.
35:04Four. So what'd you do with all your time then? I played CeeLo, Spades, Madden, 94, five, six, and seven. I hung out. I also left a lot. I left almost every weekend to go work at the store. I would get on the Amtrak and go down and work at Wine Library. I would leave like two weeks early for Thanksgiving vacation because it was busy in the store. I came back for a week and then went back to the store for a Christmas vacation. I left like two to four weeks early in the school year to get to the store, so I worked. I was waking up at seven in the morning going to Toys R Us, buying starting lineups and flipping them on this new website called eBay.
35:43And I was watching Friday on VHS. I don't know, fucking playing spin the bottle. I'm like, it's tough, you know? Toby, thank you. Go enjoy your vacation and then go live life. See ya. All right, next question, Mackenzie, you're up again. Okay, Alex says, I know you say perfect, doesn't matter, but my - Because there's no perfect. Mackenzie, who decides perfect? Of course perfect doesn't matter, it's fake. Do you know that perfect is just like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus? Do you know that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and perfect are all the same? It's fake. there is no perfect you make it up but go ahead finish your question mackenzie but doesn't my grid still need to look good for me to get followers my great my grid no you fucking idiot your grid no you know what's better than perfect being smart and knowing shit over 90 percent of follows come from the feed the feed to follow and more than 50 % of people now don't follow at all anyway.
37:01Followers are done. Content now comes to you. Content comes to you. No, your grid does not need to be perfect. Jesus Christ with this grid shit. The fuck is a perfect grid? Even GPT can't answer that. Perfect grid. Are hashtags important? No, making great fucking content that brings value to people that has a good thumbnail and a good first three seconds, good copy, and you getting in the comments and building a community, answering all your DMs. How about all you fuckers answer all your DMs first? People got like 13 fans trying to get a million and don't give a fuck about their 13 fans. Oh, oh, now we're hitting hard.
37:47That just hurt a lot of people's fucking feeling. I didn't say feelings, I said singular feeling. You have 13, you motherfuckers have 13 fucking followers dreaming of a million and don't have time to reply to DMs or comments in your posts to the 13 you have. Motherfuckers, you know how I got here? Some of you OGs do. It was called Twitter 2007 to 11 and I replied to every person that did anything. Reply to one of my comments and I searched on surmise.com before it was bought by Twitter and became Twitter search and I searched for wine terms and answered people's questions deeply. The fuck am I doing right now?
38:36You know my bougie, rich, smart friends make fun of me for doing what I'm doing right now. Two hours, this, the fuck are you doing? Fucking going deep. Depth. Get in the trenches. Be a worm in the dirt. All right, what do we got? Warning, warning before you look at this, if you've never seen VFriends cards, you are about to become addicted. First card, the energetic electric eel. Oh wait, there's a foil, there's a foil. There's a foil, there's a foil, we gotta hit. Next, the genuine giraffe. Look at that five on the neck chest. The genuine giraffe, one of the most popular characters in V Friends Land.
39:20If it's the Red Devil, will you give away$1 ,000? Yes. If the foil is a Red Devil, I will give away$1 ,000 live on this show right now since I'm wearing the Red Devil hat.
39:32Next. Another big one. The happy hermit crab. Look carefully into his eyes. Tell me you're not cutified. Tell me you are not cutified. And finally, here we go. Rips is trying to get all of you a thousand. We got a rare. Oh! Good try Rips, but it is the shrewd shark. My friends, if you don't know what this is, this is V friends. It is my Pokemon. I am building the next Pokemon. Kenzie, next question please. T-Raid says, what is the best way to find a new job and does it make me an asshole for leaving a job I interned at after only four months of full-time working? No, it doesn't make you an asshole.
40:17It happens at VaynerMedia all the time. Residents do that all the time. If this is not the right job for you, this is a free country. This is a free world. You're allowed. You're not an asshole. You're doing what's right for you and the family. It might be the wrong thing. You might find out that you are an asshole later, but it's too early. If you constantly jump, at some point, if you leave nine jobs after a year, it might be you, not the jobs. But right now, you don't know that yet, and you need to figure that out. So if you're feeling it and you're asking me this question, you gotta bounce.
40:44Make content on LinkedIn. message people unlimited on LinkedIn to companies you want to work at that's how you get a job. Next question I can put them on the screen or Mackenzie can do it. I'm open for business. J.O.? J.O. what's good brother? Hey what's going on Gary V? You well? Yeah I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Where are you from? Where are you calling from? I'm in Brazil right now but I live in Florida. I have an apartment in Florida so I spend a lot of time over there. Pleasure my man. What's your question? So my question is I worked at Papa John's for a while and I was a top general manager there.
41:17Now, a lot has happened. I ended up leaving Papa John's and spending time with my mom in Brazil. It's making me very happy because you only got so much time with your mom, with your family, you know what I mean? That's amazing. That's amazing. That's exactly right. I got to get back to work, you know what I mean? So I got like a little over 100K saved and I'm like, damn, do I open up a pizza shop or do I mortgage a house, you know what I mean? And the risk of opening a pizza shop, now I was a top general manager. I was strong with food and labor. so I know I can keep my costs down. But damn, if this was my last 100K, would I open up a shop or would I mortgage out a house?
41:51And I'm like, I could go back to work and pay off a mortgage. And it might make me happy because what's the point of opening up a shop anyway to buy a house, right? I already have an apartment, so I could rent out.
42:04Damn, get back here, J.O. J.O., get that internet right. Fucking Brazil's fucking us up on a great conversation. Damn, get J.O. back. I need J.O. back, because I fucking love that dude. Oh, he's back. J.O., what's good? I heard everything. We're good, we're good. So, couple things. Put the phone down, because you're shaking, so I can see you. Just put the phone down a little bit. Yeah, don't worry. Don't be nervous. Bro, first of all, first of all, you're fucking awesome. Straight up. Okay. Like, I fucking love all your energy right now. I go on my intuition. I'm telling you right now, fucking the family vibes, I fucking love it.
42:43you're exactly right. Spending time with moms in Brazil, it's so proper. You'll never regret doing it. You'll never regret it. I'm so glad you did it. I also get that you're young and hungry and ambitious and you're ready to get back to work. You're getting antsy. You're ready to build. Here's my question. Do you think, I believe that you want to open the pizza shop, but you think the right thing to do is buy the house. That's what I believe. Yeah, I definitely want to open up a shop, but I just feel like the house is the way to go. Why? Because what if it's the only last$100 ,000 I ever have?
43:20You know what I mean? I can mortgage out a house. Bro, bro. And have a roof over my head. You know what I mean? You can rent an apartment and have a roof over your fucking head. I have an apartment already I bought for$85 ,000. It was a good move. I saved up some money from Papa John's and some money my dad left me. before he passed away. I'm sorry about your loss, bro. Listen to me. Listen to me. I'm confused now. You already got an apartment, but you're trying to buy it. And you own an apartment. Right. You better fucking open up a pizza shop, J.O., or I'm going to beat your fucking ass. You motherfucker.
43:56Get the fuck out of here, J.O. Build a fucking pizza shop, bro. Because people ask me, they say, would you do, would you, because I love dogs, you know, so they say, would you open something up with dogs? I'm like, no. Would you open up a steakhouse? No. would you open up a gym? No, but would you open up a pizza shop? It's like, yeah, I would. Do you think you can fucking build a successful pizza shop? Do you know how to find a prop? Do you feel like you know how to run one? Do you think you know how to find a good location so you're not fucked from the get? Of course, I looked at the location, it was like, damn, I got like a area of about 450 ,000 people I could deliver to.
44:29And that's just delivery, you know, there's carryout. Where would you build it? It'd be Lauderdale Lakes. Papa John's Lauderdale Lakes makes 60K a week. If I can make half of that, I'm good. What about a fucking pizza truck first with a little less risk and a little bit more mobility? Thoughts on that? I don't know if I would get a truck. I would rather it put to a location. I get it. Listen, I actually think neither is exactly right. What's right is what's right for you. J-O, listen to my face. Mm-hmm. Open the fucking pizza shop.
45:10I hear you. Bro, you can live in an apartment for your whole life, but I have a very sneaky feeling in my Gary V intuition stomach. Let me ask you a quick question. How many hours are you gonna work in that pizza shop when you open it? Oh, I dedicate my life to it. I was, when I was a worker, I worked 50 plus, sometimes even 70 hours. I made over a thousand dollars as a shift leader in a week. Bro, are you in for a buck 50 a week? Oh, 150 hours? Yes, motherfucker. I mean, yeah, I do whatever I gotta do. So what are we even talking about here?
45:57I mean, I'll sleep at the shop if I have to. No shit, I can see it in your fucking eyes. So now explain to me what the fuck are we talking about. I have a funny feeling what we're talking about is people around you, well intended, want you to play defense.
46:16Tss is right.
46:23Hey, can I shout out my Instagram? Hell fucking yes. It's J-O underscore L-U-V J-A-Y-O underscore L-U-V Listen to me You need to open this pizza shop because you know what to do
46:42Yeah I hear you I hear you Who doesn't want you to open the pizza shop? Tell me No it's There's no one I got a lot of support My mom supports me but she thinks the house is a better move Of course she does She's your mom That's what moms are supposed to do. Moms play defense. Entrepreneurs you look up to play offense. So who are you? An entrepreneur or a mom?
47:15You could be a mom later. You own a fucking apartment. You can live in it for the rest of your life. Don't give me that. I need a fucking roof over my head. You got a fucking roof over your head. Right, right, right. You're triggering people that don't have roofs over their head. Right, right, right. You're willing to work 100 plus hours a week. You fucking did the craft. You know the business. I went to school for hospitality, so it's my industry and - I don't give a fuck about school. You fucking lived it. I don't give a fuck. If you told me you went to school for hospitality, I'd tell you to buy a fucking house.
47:48I hear you. You fucking worked. Yeah, I did. You tasted it. You know what it is. You watch those people roll into that fucking store. Yes. And eat that below average pizza. Are you gonna make better pizza? I mean, I believe so. How do you believe so? That shit's average, my guy. Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. I definitely can make better pizza. Let me get this straight. Everything, you own an apartment, You have 100K saved. How old are you? 28, I'm about to do this at like 29, 30. You're 28. You know exactly what to do. You're willing to bleed out of your eyes. And what you're thinking is you're gonna buy a house.
48:40You got a family? Yeah, I got a family. How many people? It's me, my mom, my little brother. So they're gonna live in the house? Well, my mom has a house too. She rents out. and then I have a house in Brazil and another apartment. Bro, I'm gonna punch you in your mouth.
49:02You better, my man, you better open up that pizza shop and I'm telling you right now, I love your moms, but I'll take her heat. I ain't scared of her. Open up this fucking pizza shop. I hear you. No, I don't. I appreciate the advice. No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't like that energy. That's that, you're appeasing me and we're moving on energy. I need the holy fuck, the fuck was I thinking about the house energy from your mouth. Make pizza, bro. I hear you. I can make like about a grand a week delivery driving or going back to a general manager position somewhere. No shit. Do that after your pizza shop fails, motherfucker.
49:39I hear you. No shit you can make a thousand doing that. That's your backup plan, not your fucking forward plan. I hear you. Do you? Yeah, I hear you. Bro, if you don't open a pizza shop, I'm gonna lose my fucking shit.
49:56Yeah, I hear you. You're gonna build a multi-million dollar business for yourself. Your life's gonna be 30 ,000 times better. You're gonna have more financial freedom. You're gonna put your mom, you're gonna take care of your moms in perpetuity and your brother and your future spouse and your fucking kids if you decide to have them and everything. Right, right. Build your fucking business. You know what to do. You could take the risk and if the money goes to zero, Bro, don't blame me. Just fucking wipe your tears and go make$1 ,000 a week. Of course. I really like listening to you. Give me a lot of inspiration.
50:28I appreciate that, J.O. But now you have to act on it. No doubt. Are you going to hang up and in two days forget all this energy and then buy a house? Tell me the truth. I just need to know. I don't know. I'm really into this house idea. This really got me like, damn. I could have a house at 30. Good. Buy a house. and invite me to the house for me. Yeah, good bro, buy the house. That's what you should do. I appreciate it. Invite me to the house opening so I can come there and shit on you. I love that. I love you, bro. Good luck. Oh, by the way, JL, let me give you the preview. When you're 60, you're gonna think about this conversation your whole life and regret not opening the pizza shop.
51:10I just need you to know that right now. I don't know. Good news, I do know. I'm telling you right to your fucking mouth. You were gonna think about this conversation your whole fucking life if you buy this house and regret it your whole life. I'm telling you to your fucking face. I hear you. Okay, good. Love you. No problem. See you. No problem. See you. Fuck! All right. Let's move on. Another one lost at sea. God damn it.
51:39All right. They got people twisted on this American dream. Do you know the richest people I know, literally from Facebook and Uber IPOs, some of them don't even own a single house.
51:54Financial literacy is a wild concept. There's man, there's so much to it. He's gonna put that down payment, he's gonna have no liquid. He's gonna be on defense. He puts that 100 ,000 into Amazon stock. He can borrow against the Amazon stock. like there's just so much shit people need to learn and do you know what else people do with a house every fucking person they put too big debt of a deposit down they stretch themselves to the extreme which then makes them have a house that has an upkeep that they can't afford rips knows i try to push rips to rent but nope he wanted to go with that family you know you know i'm gonna waste money if a guy buys fucking trading cards for$10 ,000 to go to zero, but he's worried about wasting money for one year renting to figure out the city.
52:46We'll see. Shut your fucking mouth, Rips. All right, let's keep it going, Mackenzie. All right, so we asked AI to ask you some questions. AI? Yeah. All right, AI. So you asked GPT to ask me some questions? And Gemini. And Gemini. All right, let's see. Who's first, Gemini or GPT? All right, Gemini, go ahead, ask your question. How do you foster a culture of innovation within your organizations, and how do you encourage calculated risk taking? By me actually doing it. Right? Think about how you've all been affected. I talk a whole lot. Man was right early. Johnny Five Five, my guy's like, you've been talking for 10 years.
53:23You're absolutely right. I've also been doing for 10 years. The reason it's so easy for all of you to, when I talk about work ethic, half of you were with me last night at one o 'clock in the morning when I left studio. I'm back in share. People asking me why I'm still working a lot of my circle. Not only am I working, I'm working in the dirt. This isn't bougie breakfast with like executive fancy person. I'm in the fucking dirt. I'm in the trenches. How do I foster a culture of innovation? I fucking innovate, McKenzie. When I fucking launched an NFT project, all my employees are like, what the fuck is that?
54:05When I do live shop, everybody in the company is like, Like we should start strategizing about live shopping. I'm like, motherfucker, I've been live shopping. I am the innovator. How do I foster a culture of it for my employees? By fucking living it. Most bosses suck cause they talk, but they don't live it. That's how, Gemini. Mackenzie, next question. Good vibes club, good call teacher. ChatGPT asks, with AI evolving fast, How do you see personal branding shifting in the next five years? I think people that build personal brands are going to have even bigger wins. They're gonna have the ability to make their teams that make content for them and work with them more effective.
54:49Personal brands are gonna put out more content. I'm gonna put out 40 ,000 posts a day, not four. Why not? As we get the tools, right? Some people are gonna be able to have teams without having teams at first with agents. It's gonna be a whole new world. Another question. Okay, we have one from Anna. This is a real person. Okay. I'm 79 but look 60ish in the face and body. I need to be - Body, that's the best part. Go ahead. I need to be an influencer for financial reasons. I've listened and admired you for a while but was cowardly to start. Now I have no choice but to do something and quickly I don't know where to start.
55:29By making content. by going to garyvee.com slash attention. She's 79. You're wise. But she looks 60 in the face and the body. garyvee.com slash attention. All right, who's on with me? Who's on with me? Trish, how are you? I'm great. It's a pleasure. I can't believe I'm on here. I'm actually gonna cry. Don't cry, Trish. That's so nice. Where are you? I'm in Kansas City. Amazing. Are you a Chiefs fan? Oh, who isn't, right? You guys have won so much. It's been huge. Good for you. All right, what's your question, Trish? Etsy has recently shut my, I'm sorry, I'm getting emotional. Last year, my husband was in a heart failure, had to have a defib put in.
56:16I got press cancer. I'm so sorry. Etsy shut my shop down. It was like a six figure business. Why did they shut it down? on Christmas day, you know, the year was a shithole, but. So wait, so wait, how are you feeling physically? Let's break this all down. First of all, how are you feeling? Great, I'm more blessed than anyone on the planet, honestly. And this entire journey has been, it's just been kind of interesting and cool to kind of go through and I'm really glad I'm going through all of this. And so I had a double mastectomy and it's - Look at this. Everything's great. Gang, I want to send a signed resilient Red Devil hat to her.
57:01No way. Yes, because she is truly the resilient Red Devil. I love you, we'll set that up. You got that team? You'll get her address and all that. Here, give it to me. No way. Yes way. You deserve it way more. How do you spell your name? T-R-I-S-H-A. Maxwell.
57:29I'm sending you this. Oh my God, no way. Yes way. We're in good health, okay? You're amazing, thank you. All right, let's break this down. How's your husband doing? He's good, yeah, he's doing great. Is he exercising, eating right? Don't fuck with this shit. You know what, we were big drinkers and once he found that out, he stopped drinking and he's like in control of everything, really watching his song and everything. He's doing great. Good. Sorry, I didn't sign it. Team just made fun of me. Even better now. Now you can sell it on eBay. No way. That's not going anywhere. Okay. Etsy. Yeah. No bullshit because I have relationships there and I don't want you to make me look like an idiot.
58:16Was Etsy right to ban you or is it complete randomness? Talk to me real because I don't want to look like a fucking asshole. Right. Here's the thing. So I, um, I have a metal shop and I make metal signs and decor and I have a lot of people asking for, um, collegiate stuff. And I told them, I was like, I'm not licensed. So I got it. So I didn't do logos. I did hand signs. So, you know, like K-State, I'm a K-Stater. So that's K-State, Texas, Texas Tech. And so I started doing those and, um, I contacted an attorney and he said, you can't license a hand sign. and so I continued to do it and somebody contacted me who was the licensing agency for K-State and University of Houston and they said you gotta take it down and I was like well my attorney says you can't license the hand sign and they went to Etsy and boom boom right which is fine I didn't do anything I was like okay whatever but then all of a sudden boom boom boom boom Vanderbilt I got it listen to me send me an email to Gary at vfriends.com.
59:24Okay. With the username of the old shop. Write it in detail. Be honest. Let me see if I can help you. I love you. I love you too. I wish I could hug you. You can hug me virtually and mentally. Number two, you've got to start selling on this platform. Yeah, I just, once I got on here, this is my first time on here with you, and I got on my computer while I was listening to you, setting up my profile and everything. so. I'm proud of you. This is going to blow you away where this can be. I love it. Alright. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Gary at vfriends.com. Full detail links, attachments from emails you got or things.
1:00:05Tell it real and that will give me a chance to try to help you. Thank you so much. It's Dandelion Decor is my shop. So thank you so much. I appreciate you. You're welcome. Bye, Tricia. Bless you. Aaron, you're feeling that one. It's real life stuff. We're doing good stuff here. Tea with Gary Vee. By the way, Tea with Gary Vee. Looks like it's coming back full time all the time. We're working on it. I predict by the fall that we'll be there. We got a couple more hurdles to get over, but I feel like if I'm in town, I also plan on traveling a lot more. You're gonna see a lot more Gary Vee this back half of the year.
1:00:40More podcasts, more live streaming, a lot more Gary Vee. Teams gonna be loaded with unlimited content because we'll need it. We have 40 ,000 posts a day. You just heard it here. All right, next question, let's go. Carlos says, I'm in the trucking industry. Can you run a company effectively without having to build your own online personal brand? Of course. There's unlimited people who have massive companies who've never even created a social media account. They're just leaving money on the table. Remember that Facebook movie? You know what's better than a million? A billion? So you could have a trucking company doing 800 ,000 a year, four million a year, but you know what's better than 800 ,000, McKenzie?
1:01:191.6 million. You know what's better than 4 million? 8 million. This is, of course, there's a million ways to build a business. Personal brand, social media, but the amount of businesses that went out of business that relied only on the yellow pages in the 90s and then Google came along, got murdered out of business. If there's a business right now that only gets its business from Google AdWords, they have to change right now. And so you gotta know if you're vulnerable and what a personal brand or your business's brand on social does is you build brand which makes you more indispensable to new challenges, new competitors, things of that nature.
1:01:58So that's how I see it. That's how I see it. Next question, Mackenzie. The Bellow Bros. Yo, Tyler. Doing the fucking show here. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. All right, go ahead. The Bellow Bros. My brother and I built our brand as an influencer duo for four years. Now he's choosing a different path. How do I pivot? Easy. Have you ever heard of Bret the Hitman Hart? Has this guy ever heard of Shawn Michaels? Oh, you like where I'm going, Mason? Do you know who Bret the Hitman Hart is? And do you know who Shawn Michaels is? They came up the game as part of a tag team championship known as the Hart Foundation for Bret Hart with Jim the Anvil Neidhart.
1:02:44and for Shawn Michaels, it was Marty Jannetty and they were known as the Rockers. That was their brand. They broke up and Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart went on to have a much bigger, even though they got massive as a tag team, became even more famous, more successful, more accomplished as an individual wrestler. Our friend here needs to become Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels. My friends, when you're in a duo and you break up, become Bret Hart, edit, and become Shawn Michaels, edit. And that's how you live life. Don't cry. Don't dwell. Don't look back, because that fucks with your neck. Look forward, be optimistic, and be ready for the challenge.
1:03:36Next question, please. We have John. John. Gary, both my parents have cancer and my sister and I help out a lot. I work in sales and I don't know how to get ahead. I don't know what to do. This is, you know, what sucks is there's so many things I can answer. It's similar to Trisha before. Sometimes we have to go through chapters that are hard. You know, and getting ahead right now might not just be in the equation. Is that him? Oh my God. My man, my brother. Gary. I've been a follower for a long time, man. Man, I love you, bro. I'm so sorry. So it's this gentleman, right? Sid, this is the gentleman dealing with it.
1:04:17Yes? Yes, yes. What's your name, brother, again? I'm sorry, I forgot. John? John, yeah. John, brother. How old are you? I'm 27. My man. Honestly, right now, I would not focus on getting ahead. I would focus on persevering. I would focus on maximizing time with your family. and I would, if you were my best friend, I'd feel more comfortable saying this versus my brother here in our community. I would also say embracing the shit. I don't know if you noticed with Trisha, did you see Trisha on the last thing? Yeah. Did you notice how she said at the end that she was grateful through going through her husband almost dying of a heart attack for her having breast cancer and having a dumb mastectomy for her, like losing her Etsy shop?
1:05:03Did you hear her carefully that she said she was grateful. Did you catch that? Yeah. You know, you're a young man, but what I will tell you is one thing that is surprising is the resiliency of humans. And what I would tell you is, brother, that this is a tough chapter. You and your sister are helping. You've got two parents with cancer. It's tough. But what I would say is if you were my best friend, if you were Brandon Warnicke, my best friend in the world, I would tell him after a long night of drinks and dealing with it when we realized we were in the muckery, right? I would say to him, hey bro, there's a part of you that needs to even go dark and almost like kind of like embrace the fucking darkness.
1:05:46You know, like become a fucking warrior. Do you understand where I'm going? Yeah. You know what I mean? Can I give you a little backstory? Please, please, please. So my dad has stage four, it's called neuroendocrine cancer. And you know, obviously cancer's not curable, but he goes through chemo radiation. So I got a job opportunity. I'm from New Jersey, from Morris County actually. No shit, where? Yeah, I grew up in Dover. Oh my God, do you know Dover's where I first knew before? Yeah, amazing. Go ahead, brother. That's why that kind of started Is that Kmart still there? No, no, they tore it down.
1:06:16Yeah. Damn, I love that Kmart. And so I moved to Kentucky for a job opportunity in sales. So right now I'm making like a buck 30, a buck 40. And I did it just to, you know, get help my parents out. And then two months in, when I moved here, my mom got lung cancer. So I plan on moving back to Jersey. The only thing I struggle with is like, you know, I guess sometimes I have that imposter syndrome. Like, can I make the same amount of money? Do I have the skills? And me and my sister, she works in she's a speech pathologist, so she works in a school and she makes like 65. So a lot of my money, you know, I have some debt, like I have like 40k in debt.
1:06:55And a lot of my money is, you know, I give to them. And like a part of me feels like I'm not saving a lot. I get it, I get it. Brother, let me just look at my face. I had no savings at 27 and I was doing the same thing in a different way. I just worked fucking my dick off 24 seven for my dad. And he was paying me shit. You're making three times the amount of money I made at 27. You right now make three times the amount I made. That's crazy. You can, bro, it's just a chapter. Do you understand? Yeah. And honestly, you're such an honorable dude. I fucking respect you so heavy, bro. I appreciate you, Gary.
1:07:32You know how many so many people run away from this and do their own thing? You're such a good man. I admire you so much, my brother. I appreciate you. Real talk. You've got one really good partner in this. Time. You got time. You know, 34 is when I started my career. I'm about to promote this new book called Shoveling Shit. Not my book, Cass and Mike Lazaro. They were the founders of Buddy Media. The reason I'm co-signing it so heavy is I had so little money at 34 that I had to open VaynerMedia in their conference room in their company. So I'm always indebted to them. Bro, you got time.
1:08:14I love you. I love you too, bro. And don't worry about imposter syndrome. Just keep applying for jobs. Hear me out. Five companies in New Jersey are gonna be like, yo, just because you did it in Kentucky, you can't do it here. We're not paying you shit. And the sixth company is gonna pay you 160.
1:08:31Bro, no's are opportunity, no's are good, no's fucking built character, no's are fucking delicious. But you think moving home is a good idea, right? I think either moving home or frequently flying from Kentucky to Newark and seeing your parents, either or, you'll never regret it. God forbid, God's got a plan. So I don't know if you have to move, but if you can fly home, Kentucky to Jersey with the right flights you can get for a good deal. Can you fly? Yeah, can you fly home every other weekend and work one day remote for the Kentucky job? Like either move home or be there as much as fucking possible.
1:09:08Yeah, I think moving home for me is probably the right idea just because they need transportation, help, anything I can do. So bro, go apply to 100 jobs. Somebody's gonna say yes and pay you more. I'm gonna do that tonight. All right, my man. Love you. I love you, Gary. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. All right, another good tea with Gary Vee, everybody. Clap it up.
From the publisher
This Tea episode was wild—in the best way possible. I went deep with a bunch of callers on everything from building personal brands to battling imposter syndrome, choosing between buying a house or opening a dream pizza shop, and even bouncing back after Etsy shut down a six-figure store.
If you’ve ever felt stuck, scared to start, or unsure which way to go—this is the episode for you. There’s a ton of real advice in here, but more than that, it’s energy. It’s fire. It’s the push you need to stop overthinking and start moving.
We talk about:
Why "perfect" content is killing your momentum
The truth about followers, DMs, and your first 13 fans
Whether college still makes sense (especially if you're creative)
AI, brand building, and the future of search
What to do when life punches you in the face—and how to fight back
The pizza shop vs. house debate (and why offense always wins)
How to grow leads with local ads and repurposed content
Why soft skills matter and how to find companies that actually care