GaryVee_Internalmeeting_recording_bestmeetingever_01-13-26.mp4

0:00What is your greatest advice for us outside of our careers? To fight for happiness. People do not fight for happiness enough. People have decided to lean into cynicism, into blame, into envy, into jealousy, mainstream media, social media, pessimism. Like people are selling all of you a bunch of bulls**t. The world has never been better. The world has never been better. Period. This is the greatest era to ever be alive. I would switch with all of you in 10 seconds. And unfortunately, that's not what people think. So my advice to you is to fight for happiness. Try to understand why I'm telling you that.

0:30Go look at facts instead of headlines that are built to scare you. This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. And my question is, what is your walkout song? Just to kind of know who you are and if you've thought of that. Yeah. The only one that I've ever really used consistently for my keynotes has been First of the Month by Bone Thugs and Harmony. Mainly because it's a song I once listened to 853 times in a row. And it gets me pumped. It also is like a really kind of like rugged hustle song. It's like, so there's always just been a very like from the dirt kind of part of it. Plus, I've always loved that like 93 % of the world has no idea what the fuck Bone Thugs and Harmony are saying in their songs.

1:14So it always felt like I was on an inside like club in actually knowing it. So I would go with First of the Month by Bone Thugs and Harmony. But yeah, man, you talk a lot about being the guy that you wish you had as a kid and what would you say to yourself if you were a resident right now, like going through the program, just starting out at Vayner, from our end, obviously not the spot. I have a real thought on this because I know it's what I would do. I know myself. I couldn't recommend all of you becoming friends with all of you more. We're going to teach you a fuckload. I'm gonna be who I am.

2:00But your relationships with each other going through this is everything. All of you are gonna be so far ahead in the world of business and marketing because you're coming up Vayner at a time where Vayner's like Apple in 1986. Like you're on it. You're at Facebook in 2010. You're like a Tesla 12 years. Like you know those are much bigger companies than we will ever be but we are disrupting and are historically correct about advertising. There are literally people on this call right now who in 21 years are gonna be the CMO of Coca-Cola. Literally. And so like, what would I tell myself or what would I be thinking?

2:41That I need to make sure that I get everyone's LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, email from this group and go out of my way to be friends with everybody on Slack and create common ground with them around upbringing, interests, like at all costs. at all costs. There's nothing more valuable that will happen at Vayner than you taking advantage of you guys and gals are part of this little micro crew and that makes you connected in a different way and that all of you are coming into a company that is gonna accelerate your opportunities whether within it. There are literally people in here that are gonna be the bosses of people in here and by being friends, it's gonna be just a much more enjoyable life in three years.

3:25there's also people here in 19 years who again are going to be CMOs of the biggest companies in the world that may help your child get an internship at that, like this is it. What is your greatest advice for us outside of our careers? To fight for happiness. People do not fight for happiness enough. People have decided to lean into cynicism into blame into envy into jealousy people have really like the world has done a really good number on the world mainstream media, social media pessimism like people are selling all of you a bunch of bullshit the world has never been better the world has never been better period this is the greatest era to ever be alive I would switch with all of you in 10 seconds and unfortunately that's not what people think so my advice to you is to fight for happiness try to understand why I'm telling you that.

4:26Go look at facts instead of headlines that are built to scare you. As a Gen Zer, we kind of grew up with the social media boom. Yep. And we kind of understand the consumer up mentality and the social media first mentality. Yes. So my question is, is how did you come up with that before, or like understand that disruption before any of us understood it. So one of the advantages of being older is timing. So when MySpace and even before that Friendster came, when I was, MySpace was very clear to me in 2005. How old were you in 2005? Six. Beautiful. So when you were in kindergarten, trying to desperately like figure out what the world is, I was sitting in a liquor store desperately trying to figure out like why is the internet changing and what is this and this feels different.

5:26This is different. This is not the last 10 years. This has something to it. And like look how cool like oh wait Rick Ross and Dane Cook the comedian and Tila Tequila the model like they're winning on this thing. there's something happening and so I took very big note and then very quickly YouTube, Twitter and Facebook came out and I was like okay something's fucking up and then right then and there right behind that the iPhone came out and I was like okay this is a series of things that make sense to me and the radio used to be the most important thing and then the television was invented and the television only used to have three channels and then it had 13 and then it had 36 and then it had DirecTV.

6:17This makes sense to me. And so I followed my intuition. But, and this is important for all of you with AI, VR, NFTs, not only did I have intuition, I immersed myself in it. So I was 31, 30, when I made my first video. And I made a video tasting wine because it's what I knew. and so I just put myself out there and made sure I tasted it and was a practitioner you can only learn by doing you can't talk about it in theory and so you know I think I have good consumer intuition and I have good willingness to become a practitioner and so it was obvious to me because I was in it you know yep that totally makes sense and so like all of you can read the emails going back and forth at the company about AI and ChatGPT and Jasper and Midjourney, or you could go and use it.

7:17Right. Thank you so much. Thank you. My question for you was, what does success look like for someone in a junior position at Vayner? Well, I think success is very different, Imani, for all of you. Right? Like, some of you were built in a very alpha home where, like, and very good at school and type A and you'll deem success as getting promoted, right? Getting the full gig and then getting promoted. And I understand that. For other people, success has some sort of financial number in their mind, right? Some people here have like a specific number in mind. If I get to 100 ,000, if I get to 500 ,000, if I get to a million, that's fine.

7:58You know, for me, success is actually truly waking up on a Monday morning and smiling with no anxiety in your chest. and whether you make$40 ,000 or$4 billion and anything in between, boy oh boy, if more people woke up on Monday morning smiling cheek to cheek with lack of anxiety in their chest, the world would be epic and that is the framework that I'm trying to create. That's what this is. That's why all of you reacted the way you did when Claude came on here. We're putting a lot of effort into that and so we won't get it perfect but we're trying our hardest and so success for me is whatever you want success to be.

8:38You know what I mean? And there's some of you sitting here right now that want my job and very honestly, I'd like one of you to be the global CEO of this whole holding company because I'm getting old. I need one of you to rise up and take this throne and so that's great and then there's other people who've realized and can look around the company and say, whoa, that person looks happy and whoa, they work nine to five, five days a week and have time for their kids and everything. I want that. And that's beautiful. And so like, or some of you are coming here to like get as much knowledge as possible and then you're gonna jump and start your own VaynerMedia and that makes me happy for you too.

9:14Like I want success to be your success but I want your success to be your success. Not what I deem success. Not what your mama deems success. Not whatever's cool on TikTok deems success. Like figure out what the fuck your success is and be ready for it to change. What you give the fuck about at 22 changes at 27 and 31 and 39 and 52. So you may have a success in your mind right now and then you might scratch that itch and you might realize, I don't like it that much. You know, and don't be disappointed by that because a lot of people get depressed when they reach something. No, no, be invigorated by that and realize you're on to your next success.

9:55Thank you. You're welcome. So my question is, you know, obviously everything the Vayner family of companies encompasses the social landscape, the media landscape, the ads landscape, they're all constantly fluctuating, constantly changing. So it can kind of be a lot sometimes to take it all in at once. So my question is, how do you prevent yourself from getting burnt out from it all? What do you do to keep the pace with all this stuff? I love myself. Let me explain. I don't judge myself when I don't feel like I've got it all grasped.

10:34You're absolutely right. This shit's moving super fast. It's okay to not be great at knowing how Snapchat works. It's all right if you've never downloaded Pinterest. It's cool if you have no fucking clue what the fuck's going on on LinkedIn. You just keep trying every day. I think the biggest reason I don't get burnt out is because I don't beat myself up. by far one of the biggest issues that so many people have, young, old, left, right, black, white, is people beat themselves up.

11:10And by the way, do not get it twisted. I'm not talking about not holding yourself up to a standard. But it's just a little patience. Back to the earlier question. I've been doing this every day for 17 years. I'm good at it now. Some of you have never thought about these platforms in this context prior to when you started here. You were using it to hook up. You know, so like, just have empathy for yourself. That's how you try. And I think you sense it here. We have ambition. We're building a honey empire. But we're gonna give you a lot of time. As long as you're trying, you know? What advice do you have for someone who's about to turn 30, who has two young kids and they're trying to exponentially grow their professional career in this space?

12:06By realizing that patience is your only ally when it seems like it's your biggest foe. Gotcha. Right? The problem when you're trying to do something fast because of circumstances, right? Imagine, right? You're part of this residency class. 90 % of your contemporaries are kids right out of school. That's a framework where immediately you're like, fuck, I'm so behind. Whatever's going through your mind. The problem is when you're trying to speed it up, like you trip. The faster you run, the more likely you're gonna trip. And so it's about the discipline of understanding. First of all, I'm so pumped you're in this program.

12:49I've had two or three people that I've spoken to in the last six months who had similar situations where they were quote unquote a different age from the majority of people in the residency class who 18 months later really were like, oh wait a minute, I didn't have to rush. This was exactly right. And you know, patience is your ally in this brother. Like the merit of your work is gonna be the variable of your success, not how fast you politic it. Awesome, thank you. You got it brother. How did you get to a point where you can trust your creators to just say, hey, look, make what you want? Because I've worked for teams and other media companies where I had no creator freedom.

13:32I just do it and shut up and just do it. And what I can appreciate is that I can just kind of give my passion in what is sports. I wanted to build a good company. I'd rather have grown slower on something that I knew would bring value to my employees than grow faster with something that sucks shit. Really hard to get people to wake up on Monday morning smiling and having no anxiety on their chest if everyone's just making shit with no say that's fucking soulless and not fun. Yeah, yeah. Totally, thank you. Appreciate it. You're welcome, brother. My question for you is, going back to Taylor, is that how do you wake up early in the morning on a Monday and just stay hungry, you know?

14:18I'm 27 and I'm trying to keep myself going every day and I kind of struggle sometimes. So what is your take on that? What do you struggle with brother? I think just being motivated to get to my end goal. You know, I get burnt out. What's your end goal? Honestly, six figures, have a big house. I'm being a little materialistic, but. Well, that's why you're struggling. but yeah, I mean, I would have bet the, I mean, you couldn't have walked into that more if I paid you to say what you just said. You're literally the hypothesis I have of why people are unhappy. You just made up an arbitrary goal for yourself based on material things without realizing the second you walk into that home and you make six figures, nothing's changed.

15:13Damn, that was... I would rather have someone be honest with me. Even better, brother, I'm telling you from the deepest levels of love that you can even imagine. I know you. I've met a thousand of you. All of them have lost the second they got there. You've been able to turn your perspective to something that's very easy to turn your perspective to. The world is very good at selling this. It's just super not true, bro.

15:50I appreciate it. Thank you. And kind of going, adding to that, like what keeps, what should we do? Yeah, I mean, I think the alternative to that is focusing on doing things you like. Hey everybody, I hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. It'll make my mom super happy. I wanted to say from the lemonade stains to the winery to now successful entrepreneurships, well, serial successful entrepreneurships, what do you think is like the singular thread that you pulled through from the beginning that you still have now that makes you successful?

16:32That I reverse engineer the person I'm trying to sell something to. and I come from a place of good intent. Like I really tried to make good lemonade for 10 cents. Like when people came to my dad's liquor store and they wanted Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio which used to sell for$12.99 and once I knew my shit and knew there was a better Pinot Grigio named Chris, K-R-I-S, Pinot Grigio for$7.99, I fought like hell to get them to try it because I knew they'd get a better bottle of wine for$5 less. Vayner is a success because we're trying to get people to stop wasting money on dumb marketing and spend it on good marketing.

17:14When you have the customer's intention in mind, everything you want selfishly will be there in the end. So I've been, like I'm 25 and I've had a little bit of work experience and equity research and then I try to switch to strategic consulting, then I switch to like supply chain and then pharma and now I'm here thinking that this is what I need and I think a lot of big reason behind that is because I have it took me like four or five years to accept that I am someone who likes to put themselves in a completely random situation every two years and that's what appears to me about VaynerX so my question to you is like as someone who's just starting out how do I moderate the line between specializing in something right now within VaynerMedia and maybe going for those opportunities there to explore analytics brackets within the other companies within VaynerX.

18:07Would I get that opportunity to kind of explore that little bit toward the inside in me? I love that question. Look, it's very hard to answer that question because there's so much serendipity that goes into that. But the fact that you can speak to this question the way you just did, as long as you're over communicating with PET and all your kind of like champions that you interact with, the Kalins, you know, whoever you work with on these projects, I think you'll find yourself in a very good place. What I'm most proud of, like we're not bound to what I think most agencies and companies are. We're not rigid.

18:46We're not type A. And so this is all about communication. And sometimes you should stay and sometimes you shouldn't. But not me, not you, only God knows if that would have worked out. I think what you can't be is crippled by the decisions you make. Don't think that you're being brash or things of that nature or too fast. You're just following what feels right in your stomach. And maybe you'll do a couple things at Boehner X and then the third thing you're like, wait a minute, this is it. And you might do that for five years and then five years in one day, you're like, this is not in anymore and that's fine too.

19:17So I would just continue to communicate, take feedback, balance that from people who might say you're moving too quick, stay another year, try this for another six months, make decisions, live on those decisions and just keep navigating. Great, thank you. I feel like from past experiences I feel like there's slight negative connotation to this. I've been badgered by interviewers like why do you switch all the time? Tell them the truth. Tell them you're curious. Tell them you're trying to find something that will fulfill you. I promise you, you don't want to work anywhere that views that as a negative anyway.

19:55Yeah, exactly. Okay, thank you so much. I have a funny feeling that wasn't a big issue at Boehner. Yeah, definitely. That's what makes me want to ask you this question. And it's a really difficult question to ask anyone else, to be honest. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a very normal track for the curious and haven't found that home yet. I noticed, you know, you have so much on your plate as far as like all the hats you wear with every company that you started or are a part of currently. what keeps you passionate to keep going when you have so much going on? Only asking because I don't have as much as you but I have like organizations I'm president of and I sometimes feel myself kind of like not being passionate to give my all to every role that I'm in.

20:43So I just wanted to know like what keeps you passionate in every role? Accountability sometimes to do things that, you know, I think one of the things that the world is struggling with is being able to deal with inconvenience. I think it's a real issue. I think it's a real opportunity. We've been programmed, parented. We've been fortunate in a lot of ways in the macro. Obviously, many of us can grow up with difficult situations, but we've demonized the capacity to be inconvenienced. And when I make a commitment, even though I hate going to that meeting or I don't want to do it, I've learned how to tolerate short term or midterm inconvenience.

21:30That's number one. Number two, I'm also very comfortable similar to the last question of changing my mind. It's okay to unwind a commitment. As long as you do it graciously, you could walk into the next meeting and say, hey, I need to resign at the end of this year from this committee. I just want to give everyone nine months. now you've created a light at the end of the tunnel which almost weirdly makes you even better those nine months, you know what I mean? You know, I'd rather you be great on my board for nine months or committee than be below average for three years. So I think it's a balance of willing to deal with inconvenience and also willing to graciously change your mind.

22:14Both of those things keep me passionate. I know there's an out if I do it graciously and appropriately and I know that sometimes I have to sleep in the bed that I made. Thank you. You're welcome. My question for you is, you know, obviously being in this program, just for like, what, like a little over a month so far, I've just been able to see that like obviously there's a lot of like love and care directed towards us and directed towards teaching us and kind of guiding us along our way. And so my question for you is just like, frankly, like why do you, why do you care so much about like us and like younger people and why do you guys see us as such an investment uh going forward i think it's the right thing to do you know i think when you are blessed there's a sense of responsibility and i think you know so many of my business big big boy big girl friends laugh at the concept of how much we put in and up front on this and how vulnerable we are for people leaving and da-da-da-da-da-da.

23:22I just don't see it that way. I know, you know, I think we have the best culture in the world. So I think a lot of people will stay. So that's good for the business. But even if people didn't stay, we can afford to do it. It's a nice thing to do. It leaves a positive impact on the business world. I want more people to be affected by the way we see business. and I feel great that we get to show you how it should be. You don't have a clue. When I tell you the greatest thing of this whole program for all of you is knowing this exists. You know how many people work for 25 years and have no idea that you can do it right?

23:59You know how many of your parents and friends and relatives and friends at school and cousins think you're completely full of shit when you talk about this company and that you're just drinking from some weird Kool-Aid that I made up. You know, it's just the right fucking thing to do, bro. You know? Awesome. I love that. Yeah. Appreciate it. Believe me, I appreciate it. And it goes back to the thing I said earlier, Luke, which is like when you do the right thing by the other side, all the things that you want will happen. I call it 51-49. If I give all of you 51 % of the value, then 49 will be just fine by me.

24:43I don't think too many companies try to get somewhere between 80 and 100 % of the value. And once you figure out the model for 49, you're good, you know? Yeah, that's great. I appreciate that. Thank you. Anyway, I love you all. Hope this was fruitful. Hope it helped. Always available. Thanks, everyone. You're welcome. Cheers, everyone. Cheers, everyone. Thank you. Love you. Thank you. That was fucking tight. That was fucking sick. That was amazing. Best meeting ever. No, for real. I feel rejuvenated. I feel reassured. It's good. Yeah, me too. Okay, bye guys. That's all. You know what my favorite thing to do is make pretend I leave to listen to what actually is being said?

25:34and I can tell you right now that felt fucking amazing. I literally did not log off because I was like, let me wait and see if he'll stay. I hope you did. I love you guys. Love you guys. Have a great, great day. Cheers. Bye-bye everyone. Love you. Everybody, if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.