Should You Expand Your Business or Stay Focused? Here’s How to Know | Tea with GaryVee Ep.74

0:00Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Tea with Gary Vee, episode 74, live from New York City. Game four, Knicks, Celtics at the Garden tonight. Everything's on the line. Every Celtic, Knick, and NBA fan knows whoever wins game four is going to win it. So everyone's super hyped about that. We are now into week two of the launch of VFriends Trading Cards, Tops, Chrome. These have been an absolute movie. If you don't know about them, please go to vfriends.com slash tops chrome. Pablo, we're going to you first. You have a question. Yeah, from Cade.

0:37Her question is, hey, Gary, I've been selling full time on whatnot for almost two years now, and I've scaled close to two million in sales. I'm 22 years old. Stop right there. She's 22 and has done two million in sales in the last 24 months from 20 to 22. Live social shopping is a monster. like straight up even like this weekend sign up for account on whatnot sign up to sell and like sit in your living room and sell random shit in your house it's like ebay it's free money dustin anyway go ahead do you think it's time to start other businesses or should i keep focusing on whatnot no unless you hate it but she's just starting like no no no get that to 10 million save money the number one goal for anyone who's trying to live a life on their own means is to cut down their overhead, save money, so much so that you can attack your dream for a year and not worry about money, which means you kind of need 18 months worth of money because you attack it for a year.

1:37And then when you're like, fuck, I failed at my dream. Let me get a job. You got to give yourself a couple minutes there to find a new job. So my number one goal for everyone is cut your overhead, meaning cut your expenses. Like you don't need four streaming services. You don't need to buy$8 coffee. You could take public transportation instead of Ubers. You don't need six handbags, maybe two's good enough. You don't need to buy fucking collectibles. Rips, like don't let anybody be buying these fucking VFriends collectibles even though they're gonna go to the fucking moon because they're gonna execute for 40 years.

2:07Don't let them buy it right now if they don't have money. I get upset, Rips, I don't know if you've seen these tweets. Sometimes people are like, oh I can't buy the comic book this week, I have to wait for my paycheck. I literally DM these motherfuckers, I'm like do not buy the comic book. Even though I think the comic book, even though the comic book was a good buy, right? Even though it was 20 and you could sell for 50, I do encourage flip life. Like what if it didn't do that? Like we need people to understand the game. 18 months of savings against a low overhead, less expensive apartment. If you're 26 and you're living on your own apartment, move in with your best friend and have a roommate and cut it in half.

2:40If you, like you don't need Paramount Plus. If you don't have$100 ,000 in savings in your bank, it is inappropriate to have Prime, Hulu, to ESPN plus YouTube TV. Like what the fuck? Yes, that's where I'm going. By the way, you can have, notice what I said. You can't have six services you're paying for. You can have two. I'll let you have Netflix and one other. All right? You got it. So anyway, no, not move on. She's just gaining heat right now, but she's not as far, like maybe, like there's follow-up questions there because she might be talented enough. But anyway, who's on the screen? Hi. hi Gary it's so nice to meet you my name is Caitlin Caitlin yes nice to meet you where are you from I'm from Calgary Alberta amazing I'll be there soon am I in Calgary this week or is that next week I'm going to Calgary next week oh really that's amazing yeah well you'll have to see where you are because I will come and see oh it's a private yeah it might be on my website on garyvee.com slash events anyway all right Caitlin ask a question uh for business leaders out there who are growing their companies.

3:48We're a culture company. So we go in and we do team building and then we help build those cultures into the process. I wanna know, because I know what you speak a lot about like creating great leaders in your company. What is it that you do for your leadership so that they take your culture, what you, your dream, your vision and they put it into the company? Love and accountability. So number one is love. The reason people deliver for me and my companies is because I deliver for them first. I truly believe in my soul that I work for everybody that works for me. I believe it to my soul. I know everybody in my office is motivated by different things.

4:25Some people care about a title, right? Zach over in the corner doesn't give a fuck about a title. He's trying to put in the fucking hours to get the skills, build a close relationship with me, and then he'll decide what he does with that. Other people need money, right? Like something bad happened in their life and they're motivated by money right now or not even something bad. They just are motivated by money. Allowed. Motivated by title. Allowed. Motivated by mentorship. Allowed. A mix of all three. Allowed. What I'm spending my time trying to figure out is who wants what and how do I deliver it?

4:59So, Caitlin, first it's about what I can do for them. How am I delivering for them? That all of a sudden gets them into the same place that I am with the world. I am grateful and feel guilty on how my circumstances played out, meaning I got lucky that I had the best mom in the world and that I grew up in shit. Growing up with little and having the best mom made me fundamentally unstoppable. So I have spent my life trying to give back to society through Gary Vee and now through VeeFriends. When I do what I do for my employees, they go through a similar guilt and gratitude framework. They have unlimited buddies who hate their job.

5:41They go and try different shit and sit in a cubicle for one second, and they're like, fuck this shit, I'm coming to family. They can taste it, they can taste it. And then that motivates them to deliver on our North Star, right? And then accountability. When an employee doesn't do that for a sustained period of time, especially if they're senior, we have to give them candor that they're in trouble, and then they're fired. This is tough to say out loud, but we fired two very senior executives at VaynerMedia last week. very senior. Oh no, I'm sorry. One ran an entire office, one was the number two.

6:13And like, gone. Just we were unable over years, years, to get them into the right place. And it kills me. And by the way, I have to approve every firing. So literally, in my 2 ,500 person company, at VaynerX, I have to approve every firing. Cause I wanna be the last line of defense in case my company gets political. So I feel very good about that. I feel like I've crossed every T and I. So, cause I've always struggled with firing that led to bad candor, that led to all my problems, lack of candor. So that's where we're at sister, you know, love and accountability. And how do you measure that? Or how do you observe it in your leaders so that they, you're saying, okay, I can see you're doing it.

6:58I can see you're doing it. Like what are the warning signs for you? The warning signs? Yeah, if they're not doing it. You said you let two people go, unfortunately. Oh, I mean, we have, you know, I have seven people in HR that have been here for a decade. They're like sisters and brothers to me. I trust their intuition. We take feedback from people. We create a safe lack of fear environment that a lot of people, you know, a lot of people trust. So they'll go and talk about people's bad behaviors. We look at client feedback. We look at results. You know, businesses like sports. if someone's the head of clients and they've lost three of their last four clients, well, guess what happens?

7:39There's results to that. Yeah. Especially when I make them feel safe and say, hey, if you feel like you're losing a client, use me. Bring me in. I can help. Yes. So just real-life family business vibes, you know? I love that. Thank you, Gary. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. Hope you have the best day. All right, next question, Pablo. Annie asks, can you explain why it works as a business to make content telling people why they shouldn't hire you? Sure, because it builds trust. And a lot of times when you're making content, so like when you're a plumber, you're saying you shouldn't hire me.

8:14Let's say you're a plumber, right? Or let's say you're a landscaper. Or let's say you're a marketing company. I mean, garyvee.com slash attention, admins, put that up right now. 44 page deck that allows you to not buy my latest book for 20 bucks, right? Somebody find me a day trading attention for the visual. Thank you so much, team. GaryVee.com. Nope, not GaryVeeNerchuk.com, Adrian. GaryVee.com slash attention. GaryVee.com slash attention. Not GaryVeeNerchuk.com slash attention. GaryVee.com slash attention is a 40-page deck on how to do marketing. This is 20 bucks. And then Vader's a million dollars in fee.

8:55I'm creating layers to not hire me. GaryVee.com slash attention is for you not to buy this for 20 bucks. This is more detailed. And for 20 bucks, you don't have to hire us for consulting for 150 ,000. But here's why, Pablo, it's good to do that. Because some people can't afford it. And some people need just the surface level. Other people need deeper fucking execution. Today was a post by the sign guy in Long Island. He did a free sign for my dad's store. I gave him consulting way more valuable in return. His business has exploded, exploded. But he read day trading attention and the deck and he didn't get it.

9:32He needed those extra five hours. If you're a plumber and you know that a third of your clients hire you for 500 bucks to change a little thing that they could have changed if they went to YouTube and to Home Depot, if you make that content and say, don't hire me on this situation, go to this video. In fact, if that person made, if that plumber made the video, instead of pointing them to a video, building brand, and said, go to this video that I made and go to Lowe's and spend$19 and this is how you do it. The level of trust that happens that when that same family that didn't need the sink, but when their oldest son took a huge poop and exploded their bathroom and it fucking broke and they actually did need help.

10:15Which plumber do you think they're gonna fucking call? It's called trust. The number one way to do business in the world is trust. I see Matt Garcia over your shoulder. Matt is a fucking real marketing executive He's now been in VaynerX for a little while He now leads the Sasha Group Which was a big promo for him When Marcus went to go run International Matt is like, look at his slick hair He's a salesman, you know what I mean? He's a real fucking salesman I promise you, if you go talk to him And ask him what's happened these two years He'll say, it's stunning how our company Is not as transactional as every agency I've ever worked for every agency I've ever worked for, if they even like, if the person even walks in the building, we're selling, selling, selling.

11:01Gary's fucking making us do shit for people for free. Reputation, trust. It's doing the right thing. So, you know, that's what I think. You know, that's what I think, Pablo. I think why do you tell people not to hire you? Because they end up hiring you when they actually need you. I don't want people hiring me when they don't need me. I don't need people doing that. Pablo, hit me. Rachel asks, I want to start a catering business for offices in New York, but I have zero dollars and don't know how to get my foot in the door. How can I market myself? You should work for a catering business in New York.

11:38So she has zero dollars and she wants to start a business for catering businesses. She should go work for a company that does that and gain experience while making content of what she's learning. Got it? and like do a whole content series called the road to my own business showing people every day what she learned on her job doing that for three years saving her money not spending too much saving and then starting her own business because she did three years of content like intern wantenberg can literally go home be like here's what i learned today that's what she should do like when you have no money and you have no experience and you have no connections and you're not doing anything what content are you going to put out?

12:24So many people, Pablo, that want to be something. I want to be a rapper. I want to be Gary Vee. I want to be a sneaker store owner. So many people should literally take a job at a company or for someone they want to be, document every day what they've learned that day about it in their content for two to three years, and then they will become. But all you kids got confused and thought like you're all Mark Zuckerberg and you can just start a business and be a billionaire. I didn't do that. Fucking worked in a, the reason Wine Library exploded right off the bat, you know, people are like, wow, 22 to 27, you took it from three to 50 million.

13:06Wow, that's crazy. It wasn't that crazy if you realized that I worked in that fucking store every weekend and every summer vacation from 14 to 22. When I tell you I walked in day one, May 19th, 1998, first full day of work, I walked in like I'd been doing it, like I was 79 years old and knew everything, like a veteran. And too many kids are like, I'm gonna do this. On what? On who? The best content series right now. I'm in love with this advice. Go work for what you want to become. get home every night and make a video while you're cooking or decompressing or on the walk home or on the ride home or like after you take a shower in the bathroom video with clothes on preferably make a video about what you learned because then there'll be three to four years of what you've learned on the internet which will give your customers confidence when you open your own shit in four, five, six, seven, eight years.

14:08Imagine if all of you did that. That's, you know, obviously you guys know I co-sign you and all that stuff, but you'd have your own leverage.

14:19That's the advice. All right, throw somebody on the screen. What's your name right there? Hey, Gary, how are you? Can you hear me? I can hear you, brother. What's your name? Awesome. My name is Adrel from Miami. How's everything? Adrel, it's great to see you, brother. Likewise. Pleasure to speak with you. um gary my question to you would be in the sense of both that content aspect from both let's say personal brand and business brand so i started like a clothing company a while back and i just focused heavy on posting a lot of content on the business like going crazy all different kind of and i kind of left my own personal account kind of just having been posting i want to bring it back into because like hey as the let's say the founder of the clothing brand i feel like i could but also people can promote, you know, like they follow me.

15:00And people connect to humans 100%. Exactly. That's what I'm seeing. They connect way more with, like with that personal connection. So I'm trying to see in a sense how to balance, let's say that personal branding with my own account, with the business. No balance. No balance. Go hard as fuck on both. And well, and from the, let's say from the personal account, what kind of constant, just like founder story or like show? And, and that you're pissed that the heat got knocked out of the playoffs and that your grandma was your hero and that you fucking love burritos. Alright. Human shit and business shit.

15:35Alright. Do you, you know, how long have you been following me? Um, at least I don't know, since before 2020 I would say. Okay. Do you know that I'm a New York Jets fan? Yes. Do you know that I like blueberries? Yes. I remember I saw that in another video that you posted and you talked about that actually the blueberries do you know that i like garage selling yep flipping and everything do you know that i have a marketing company yes sir do you know that i have v friends yep i have cards i've collected too you following yep i got you everything got you just like whatever is personal to you whatever you just like don't even overthink it just like go for it in a sense my brother everything everything everything everything do you understand i appreciate yeah no and one thing is funny what I noticed is that like you said, sometimes the most like raw unedited content performs like the best.

16:29The other day I was at this place, I did a random video compared to my average views. It got like three X the views and it was like the most random, like, Hey, what do you guys think of this random like location? And then everyone's like commenting. And so it's funny how that works. Play, play, play. And, and, and play, play, play. And everything is and when you're like in your, when I'm not here with you and you're in your head in three weeks and you're like, should I post on my account or should I post up my personal or the thing? Or should I post about the business or should I post about this Taco Bell?

17:01The answer is and. All right. Perfect. Thank you so much, Gary. Appreciate you. Thoughtful Harpick81 goes, what's your best kept secret? That I understand that and is the unlock. That I'm not scared of and. That I'm not scared of getting no views. that I'm not scared of getting unlimited views, that I don't have fear. All right, let's go back to questions. Pablo. David Grimes, he asked, Gary, you've inspired many to bet on themselves instead of taking the traditional college route. Yes. But for students already in school grinding toward graduation, what would a Gary V class look like today? I would just talk about practice.

17:39I would probably do this, brother. I would just do Q &A and ask people to ask me clouds and dirt questions, right? psychology, mentality, emotional questions. Like my mom is ruining me or my brother's super successful and smart and I'm like barely staying in college here and I don't have the same talents or that kind of stuff. And then, or my dad has just got cancer. How do I deal with that? So emotional stuff. And then just tactical shit like, Gary, I wanna get more views. I'm like, all right, here, let me show you now our team's work. Like here's how, notice the copy I wrote here. Why did I write that?

18:13or what's this tactic or here's what's going on on Facebook. Do one second videos instead of pictures. So it would be, I'd probably call it clouds and dirt with Professor V, right? Clouds, macro psychology, dirt, tactical in the grind shit. That's the answer. Somebody ready to get on screen? Am I on? You're on, Michael. You just need to flip the camera. There we go. Michael, what's going on? Probably a long time. Thank you, brother. Where are you from? Bronx, New York. Let's go. Let's go. Boogie down. What's good? So celebrating my 10th year in business, old school B2B recruitment firm, all of our targets live on LinkedIn.

18:52We got shut down with the Trump tariffs. Why? Yeah. Why? Yeah. We deal with a lot of multinationals, place executives, so it kind of froze the market from a hiring perspective. So we're going to come out of it. But if all of our targets really live on LinkedIn, what's the one strategy you recommend that we double, triple down all the way into 2026? How much content are you putting out on LinkedIn a day? A week? A month? Don't post your name. We post every day. Show me. So we have a full. Yeah, that's me. Yep. All right. Let's see. So this is, these are your posts? Yep. It's okay. See all posts.

19:34All right. Let's see.

19:40You thought I was lying, huh? No, it's not that I thought you were lying. I thought you were going to do it poorly, and you're doing it poorly. So here's what's happening. What's happening is you're doing way too much words and a couple of pictures. And, like, this isn't – Michael, is this going to excite anyone? Probably not. I believe what's happening here is classic, quote-unquote, checking the box to post every day without – it's kind of like going to the gym but not doing the exercises well. Does that make sense? So I want to get you to go. So here's where I want you to go. Even just seeing you on camera with me right now, I want you to post what you're posting now is fine-ish, not my ideal, but I need you to post a video from you every day.

20:27Okay. What's the strategy? What the fuck is being talked about in your world? Like think about where you're placing, like you're talking to people every, I know everything CMOs and marketers are worried about. Right? I, cause I talk to them every day. You guys are placing B2B executives every day. You know what's going on in the market. Like, you know. So in terms of like, how long, how long a video. I'll do it, I'll make the video. What's up everybody, it's, how do I execute? I'll do it. What's up everybody, it's Michael from Talent Tractions. All right, one of the things I'm seeing from everybody right now, especially in the B2B SaaS sector, is that people aren't as excited about what college you went to, but they're really looking for how many years you've had with AI at all, even if you had a year of AI work, you're gonna get a huge advantage.

21:15So a couple things. For the people out there looking for jobs, start taking these AI courses, start using them. And for recruiters out there, here are some of the places where you can find certifications that matter. Bro, I just did your post. I'm not even in your business. So it's to the point that you were making before about the plumber to add the value to kind of give away content in terms of not wanting the guy for the$500 job. but how do you then attract the B2B exec, right? You're saying that they'll see those posts as well? Bro, I just got offered a board seat, a board seat to a publicly traded company off of one video I posted on LinkedIn.

21:56Now - You're Gary V. Yeah, but I was fucking Gary in a liquor store making videos every day that nobody gave a fuck about too. It's content. You're exactly right. That's where I was hoping you would go. I'm Gary V now because I fucking did what I'm telling you to do for 15 years every day I've given away content for free that's valuable I've put out good information to the universe and in return I've built reputation your videos are going to be based on how well you know it it doesn't even have to be you, it could be people on your team, it could be you and somebody on your team but we have to put out content that brings value how are they going to see it?

22:35They all live on LinkedIn yeah right just like 14 year old girls live on TikTok executives live on LinkedIn that's why I've been yelling about LinkedIn for 100 years George from Providence, New Jersey what's good brother? George do you go to Wine Library? you're very close at New Providence I'm going to be very upset if you go to some bullshit store around you like Bottle King you better fucking go to Wine Library George answer me 39165 George yes I do let's go George you see where I'm going brother? I want that content like here's what's going on in the market here's what's going on in the market here's what's going on the market here's why somebody loses their job after six months after we place them they made this mistake here's why employees are bad at selecting employers are bad at picking employees I've helped people do this you know your shit you're in your shit got it?

23:28you're welcome brother alright let's give away the mindful Minakawa one of the fucking most badass ass, V friends, characters, the mindful Minikawa chrome card, distractions, soars above, soars above, distractions, bringing wisdom and peace through thoughtful reflection and patience. The mindful Minikawa's quote, rise above the chaos to find your clarity. This card is fucking awesome. Next question, Pablo. Mary asks, how do I get my first clients for a service-based business? Do I do cold message? Feels a little bit desperate. Yes, you do cold message. She's desperate. She has no clients. Everybody who's got a service business, you cut hair, you do consulting, you're a physical trainer.

24:21You make a video that looks like this. I will now make it for everyone. Give me a phone real quick. Hey, everybody. I'm making this video because I just started this personal training business. Hey, everybody. I'm making this video because I just started my own accounting firm and I'm looking for clients. Hey, everybody. I'm finally going after my lifelong passion to start my own landscaping business. So you're getting this video because you're in my context, context on my phone. Some of you are my best friends since high school. Others, I probably met once and you're in my phone. I'm sending this to literally everybody from A to Z in my phone.

24:55I'm not asking you to hire me to do landscaping but I'm asking if you know anyone who might be in the market for a landscaper this is my one plea, my one ask as I start on this journey and I hope my journey maybe even inspires some of you to finally jump and start your own thing so I'm starting with Andrew Anderson and I'm ending with Zachary Zazaloff please, you know, I apologize if we've only talked once and you find this to be spam I will put the link to my social media and website if you like my landscaping business. And it means a lot to me if you even watched 30 seconds of this video, because it is really my dream.

25:34Have the best day. Make that video cast, and literally text every single person. Grab your favorite beverage of choice, tea, wine, water, put on your favorite music, start at 2 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, go into 9 p.m., get it done, you will have a business. Pablo, next question. Alex Yard asked, my partner and I have created the most viral ad of the year for a major fast food chain on our island. How do we get more clients and a more stable income? By taking that video and connecting with every CMO of every Fortune 500 QSR company in the world on LinkedIn and then messaging them the video that you made and how you did it.

26:15Then going to chat GPT and say, give me a list of 10 CMOs of Fortune 500 companies and their Instagram handles. and then when it gives you 10 say and now 10 more and now 10 more find the cmos the chief marketing officers of the biggest companies in the world go to instagram and dm them because they don't get a lot of dms there and say here's a video we made and we would love to do it for you uh burton 935 you get to ask a question by literally asking it here on whatnot and we throw you up watch this throw up the next person that has a question that was asked on whatnot Hey, what's up, Gary? This is an amazing moment.