How to (Actually) Build Culture in Your Business in 2026

0:00What is the intent of the actual leader? Does the actual leader give any craps about their people? Or is it all about selfish need for them to maximize all the money for themselves and buy whatever they need to buy to close the gap of their insecurities? This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. I'm Chris, you know Andrew, this is Brian over here. Good day. Thank you so much for your time. We want to get right to it if that's alright with you. Please. Keep it productive. Okay, great. We're in the self-storage industry, fairly commoditized industry. What do you think the best way for a fairly commoditized industry to go about building a culture?

0:45A culture? An internal culture? Yeah. It's the best way to get that started. And do you think it's valuable for a commodity like self-storage? Yeah, I mean, I would argue most businesses are actually a commodity. That most businesses actually have enough different competitors that there's optionality for the end consumer, which then creates the framework of commodity. And I would argue that most businesses will shine predicated on two things, culture and marketing. Right? And so if you're selling a commodity, which again, I'm gonna sit here and argue almost everything is, going about building a culture is no different in any company, which is what is the intent of the actual leader?

1:35Does the actual leader give any craps about their people? Or is it all about selfish need for them to maximize all the money for themselves and buy whatever they need to buy to close the gap of their insecurities? So I think it's effort. I think it's mindset. And I think it's actually living the bullshit that comes out of your mouth. yeah yeah absolutely sure in in that same vein you seem to be a very empathetic person um the way the way through a good life is to be an empath is that teachable that's a really darn good question boy this is a challenging one because nobody has tried to teach it more than and I don't mean the Gary V content you've all seen for the last 15, 10 years.

2:27I mean Gary Vaynerchuk from the ages of 14 to 34 trying to deploy it into his favorite person, his father, Sasha Vaynerchuk. My dad is incredibly compassionate, has a real soft spot, but he does not have empathy. He has complete inability to feel another person's feelings. and I spend 20 years, 15 hours a day trying to impose it, educate on it, teach it and I would say that like everything in life I think my father has come along tremendously by my subjective opinion and something I really wished on him because I do think it is the path to a happier life but I do think it's like sports or like singing or like anything in life.

3:13I think we need to face the truth that we are all born with DNA. we are all raised a certain way we have an environment outside of our parenting in our home that also impacts us in our youth and then you kind of form into what you are in your early teenage years, young years and then you start the process of like what do you want to work on, right? Like, you know, it took me into my late 40s, mid 40s to realize candor was a strength publicly and a weakness privately Over the last five to seven years I've gotten much better at candor but I've gone from a two to a six and like do I think I'll ever be as candorous as my father which is a strength of his other than the delivery mechanism he's decided to use for his candor I would say no I don't think I can be as candorous as my father even in the 70s when I hope to be at the height of my candorous powers so yes I think empathy can be taught but I do think that we all have ceilings on physical and emotional capabilities but I think we should always be trying to be a better tennis player or golfer, cooker, empath, sympathetic, accountable, patient, all those things.

4:35Have you ever regarding empathy going back to that have Have you ever considered that once you had kids that that empathy and way of looking at it even increased more? No, I don't believe that is true for me. I'm sure it has happened for some because I was born selfless. So I think I've noticed in friends and family and acquaintances and through all that I read and watched in culture, inherently insanely selfish people that are often selfish because they're insecure, when they have a child, it becomes the first moment where they think about someone else beside themselves. Yeah. But I don't believe that they become inherently more empathetic.

5:25I surely did not become more selfless because of my children. I was born selfless and then I was raised by a selfless woman who imposed even more selflessness. so I was kind of at end state. I didn't feel any different but I've seen it in many but I think it's more of a selfish, selfless framework more so than more empathy.

5:51Gotcha. What do you think that the self-storage company could do immediately to change their culture today? If you were to take over a self-storage company is there an immediate impact that your outlook would bring? I mean, you know, I believe that kind, optimistic, practical leadership is rare. And when it happens, you see a lot of success around it. And, you know, I've been the beneficiary of that. And I say those things because I don't feel like I did that. I feel like my mother did that. You know, my father, my circumstances. So I say that not humbly. I say that as if it's not even my own credit, but that is what I am.

6:38And when I see it in others, I've invested in companies that have it. It's a winning formula. So if I went to every self-storage company in the country or in the world, my intuition is that 90 % of them, minimally, are not run by someone who is deeply optimistic, deeply practical, wildly accountable, and prefers sunshines and rainbows as their leadership style versus scaring people that if we don't hit the numbers this month, they might be in trouble. You know, I think most leaders weaponize fear versus optimism. And so, yeah, of course I would impact it. And then if I was, let's say, on the board of a company, not the actual CEO, and the CEO was actually one of those people, but the culture wasn't great, what would be very obvious to me is that she or he has a direct report that's very senior that is not positive.

7:36They are negative force to the company. But that the CEO looked the other way because she or he is the best salesman. They need them for X, Y, and Z. And so I would tell everybody who's listening to this podcast, some of you are well-intended and want a great culture, but your right hand or your left hand is doing the dirty work for you and you're allowing them to do that because you need the dirty work in your mind and or they're not doing the dirty work for you. They're fucking up the culture, but you're looking the other way because they're the biggest impact on the P &L besides you. And I would tell you that cancer spreads and you must cut out cancer at all costs, even when it's painful.

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9:15Yeah, yeah. Sometimes it's tough to make that sacrifice, but you have to do it for the greater good. Yeah, and if the greater good is that you want to sleep, like, for me, again, this is just, like, pure, like, this is why my life is light. I'm just fortunate emotionally. Meaning, for me, the greater good is I don't sleep well at night if there's negative, you know, I'm visceral to negativity.

9:43So, you know, it's not very hard for me to like live, like I would say I'm probably inappropriately visceral to it, right? There's probably a balance, right? But I just don't like it. I don't think it's worth it. and for me, I don't, I've had years where we, three years ago at Vayner, we barely made any money compared to what we should have. I made a lot of decisions that didn't pan out to the following year so we had a bad P &L year, right? I slept like a baby all year. I didn't give a fuck that we weren't gonna make money but when there's like one new hire that's awesome but she or he's a jerk and like I know that I have to like, and I do business in London, LA, New York, like there's a lot of bullshit laws for businesses so I know I have to I know that the person's already fired in my brain but I know I have to cross all the T's legally and do all the right things and they're gonna be in my halls for another two months doing damage undermining the culture that shit keeps me up at night so the greater good for me is the culture and then the money comes in my opinion but for a lot of people they aren't as financially and fiscally and building a business capable as I am so they don't have the fat for it to be about the culture, right?

11:03That if they fire Sam, the best salesperson, the business might really actually tank. So it's all nice and games here on a podcast, me talking about rainbows and sunshine, but then there's real life. My point to that leader is, but Sam's gonna fuck you in the end anyway. Sam's gonna cap the business anyway. So you gotta find Sally to replace Sam along the way. You need to be interviewing every day for the replacement or looking underneath Sam, Sam's direct report, Carl, might be a sweetheart. She says he stinks because she's suppressing him but he's actually capable of doing the job. This is real life human management.

11:40Yeah. Culture is a long game though, do you think? I know. Yeah. Culture is playing the long game. Not playing culture. Right. Not playing culture is the short game. You're choosing money over feelings. Fine, I get it. In the end, the feelings of the team is gonna matter because where companies get caught a lot, where I get emails after doing podcasts like this is like, you're so right. And you know what it is? It's everything was going great for seven years, then four people quit because the Sam sucked and everything fell apart. So it doesn't feel bad those seven years where you're making more money than you would have, especially for bosses that, you know, I'm an active boss.

12:21Some people are not active bosses. So the Sam allows them to play golf today on a sunny day. They get the benefits, buy a second home down the shore. But then when it all falls apart, oof. Right, yeah. Yeah, that's a tough take out. After it falls apart, writing that shit, telling everybody that Sam wasn't the right person at the time. But that's quite a help. So you mentioned culture. You mentioned the NFL draft. I'd be remiss to ask you about the Jets. I see you're decked out in green. Yes, sir. Is buying the Jets a viable goal for you? And where are you with that plan? Before you answer that, Gary, as a Dolphins fan, I hope you never buy the Jets because I think that you really would right the ship over there.

13:15I think there is a culture issue going on, and I think that's kind of appropriate with the conversation we're having here but I just wanted to sneak in. As a Dolphins fan, I really hope that never happens. That is very flattering. For you, I hope it does happen. You know, one of the, I hate the guy but he delivered one of the nice, biggest compliments of my life. Bob Kraft came up to me at a Super Bowl event and said, I really hope you never buy them. I would say a couple things. Is it viable? You know, the private equity thing that happened recently has definitely thrown a little bit of a curveball because now the valuations are gonna go to the moon because you can sell fractionalizations to finance.

13:59So, look, I don't know. Like, you know, I've said this a lot publicly. The great joy of my life is chasing the buy. You know, I've said this a lot also publicly. When the Yankees and Rangers won their championships, I stopped caring. So I've learned a long time ago that I'm a thrill of the hunt guy. Even as a child, this is really silly, when I was like in grammar school and middle school, I was like, I loved to try to get the girl that I liked to like me, but then when it would happen, A, at that age, I was still scared of girls, so I'd be like, no way, Jose. But, you know, in everything I've done, you know, building my father's business before I left it, like I've always been in it for the game.

14:44so you know there's always a sick part of me that hopes it's always just like you know that I like 72 yeah yeah but I feel in my 70s, 80s, 90s whenever whenever you know whenever I'm triggered into a version of not 101 % pure offense but maybe 90 % offense that would be an interesting chapter in my life where it'll be interesting to see what I'm willing to do to get something to, you know, listen, if the jets ever come up, I'm going to make it, I'm going to make a real effort, right? I can only focus on creating the wealth. I've got some work to do, but listen, this is, and by the way, this is a great way to end.

15:26Everyone should have massive dreams. And I'm talking about personally and professionally, because I think when you stretch yourself for very big dreams, right? I'll give you a good dream on the other side of the pillow. I want to be a working mother, I'm the bread for the home, but I want to be home for dinner every night with my kids even though I'm a CEO of a public company and then I'll go right back out and I would say that's a big dream. That's hard, right? What I just said is hard. You know, I want to I'll go leisure again. I want to play golf every Friday. Like I got all these responsibilities family, business, but I'm going to play golf every like that's a hard, people don't realize The more you push yourself, obviously mine professionally has been ludicrous.

16:11When I did it in fourth grade, even through high school, even through college, even through my early 20s, these values were not that absurd. You know, it wasn't the thing it became. I was right. I was right that sports was going to become the beacon of our society.

16:29To answer your question, for some reason I think I'm going to pull it off. Yeah, man. Yeah. I hope it takes a little while for my sake. Gary, I know we're up against this. Yeah, I gotta run. We have a theme on this. Do you have one minute round for us? Can we fire him at you? All right. First concert you ever attended? Boys to Men. Nice. Most recent concert you ever attended? Oh, that's a great question. What did I go to? Kygo at the Garden. Oh, very nice. Good show? Yeah, he was great. Any baseball card that you sold as a child that you wish you had today that you remember?

17:1584 Don Rust, Don Mattingly. That was sharp as hell that I bet you would have PSA 10'd. Morning beverage of choice. Coffee. Black coffee with a little bit of half and half. That's all we got, Gary. Love you, boys. Appreciate you. Stay well. Thanks. Hey 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. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us. We've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's OmniShade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin.

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