Side Hustle = Full Time? 30 Min Of Tactical Social Media Advice | GaryVee Backseat Q&A Highlights

0:00Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Gary V Audio Experience. Today's episode are all the top moments from one of our favorite new episodes, the hour and a half backseat Q &A. But if you're tight on time and only have a half hour free, this is the perfect way to hear all of the most impactful moments from that episode. Gary dives deep into why going viral isn't just about luck, why excuses are killing your growth, and how living within your means can actually unlock true happiness. If you're ready for a mindset shift that cuts through all the noise, you're going to love this one.

0:29Let's get right into it. I'm putting the work in on social media, believing it's not just luck, but an element of skill and consistency required. He thinks it's pure luck. So my question is, is going viral pure luck? No, viral is not 100 % skill. Otherwise I'd go viral every day, but it's definitely not pure luck. Otherwise, like, what are we talking about here? Like there's a reason Mr. Beast and I and others like are successful and consistently successful. What have I just been lucky for 20 years? So I think both of you are right, but you're more right because you're choosing optimism and he's choosing cynicism.

1:07Anybody who weaponizes luck in life is really interesting position where they have to really self-reflect and ask themselves why they think that. Now, I don't know the dynamics here. By the way, the brother that's asking the question could be in the wrong. he might be not working that much not working that hard and is like posting twice a day on social kind of putting in three hours of real work even though maybe 10 hours are eating up and other bro might be making the candles running the ops running the finance running the bucket management like doing like 10 hours of real work and might have some sort of feelings so let's not jump to conclusions again as they always say there's like two sides to the story and then there's the actual truth.

1:56But to answer the question directly, not the underlining question that I can smell in the question, virality is not pure luck. It is also not pure skill-ish. You have to have the skill to put yourself in a position to be viral, including if you go viral for something silly, you had to have the skill of humor. Like, why do we continue to diminish people's things? I do not judge what the consumer values. If they value attractiveness, I do not judge. I understand. If they value humor, I do not judge. I understand. If they value information, I do not value. I understand. If they value communication delivery capabilities, I do not judge.

2:40I understand. Like, if you are a human, this is actually a very important moment in the entire thing. If you are a human being that shits on a piece of content or a human being that has gone viral, you are very likely deploying a massive level of jealousy that is suppressing your ability to have the same thing happen. Instead of saying like the Hap Tua girl is like an idiot and this is fucked up. Why don't you understand what it means? Like, what does it mean that like sexual innuendo jokes over index in society? What does it mean? I'll give you an example for me. Does it mean that, let me use a good one.

3:27Does it mean that sexuality and sex is a foundational human characteristic, animalistic characteristic that is a universal understanding that, you know, makes both sexually expressive parts of the world or sexually, I mean, I don't think a lot of Americans realize how sexually prude America is compared to most of the world. Is a lot of the world's problems created in our relationship with sex as human being? I would say there's a lot of deep shit to what I just said. I feel like I got a lot of huhs or uh-huh in this answer. But like my framework when I see stuff go viral is why? And I want to go deep, not surface.

4:13I want to get in there. Most people are like, that's stupid. but this is silly. Fuck her. This is garbage. That's funny. Ha ha. Cool. Silly. Blah. It's like people go into like dumb shit. Never had a moment where something did get popular and you yourself just was like, I don't get it. I don't get a lot of things. I get that part. I get the part that I don't get a lot of things. The audacity and lack of humility, Dustin, of a human being saying I don't get it and thinking that means it's true is one of the most laughable behaviors in society. Who the fuck do you think you are? You're the composition of 8 billion people's interests.

4:54I get that my opinion doesn't matter. It's so funny because have you heard the term whataboutism? Whataboutism? I have not heard that yet. It's like this phenomenon online where people will see a video and think that it needs to be catered to them. So it's like, what about me? Like, I don't get this. So like, what about me? I don't like when we create new words, like imposter syndrome is insecurity. What about is fucking audacity and lack of humility. I don't need to make a new term for it. You motherfuckers who are listening and watching, almost all of you are deeply grounded. By the way, I'm a human being.

5:32Of course I have audacity and insecurity, but my levels like in the same way some people are just fucking diesel and zero percent like I'm fucking deep on this one it's my superpower I don't need whataboutism coined I need I know that most people aren't happy because they're audacious and lack humility and they don't see it in me because they get the version of me that seems convicted confident but what makes me behind in the scenes really operate is my humility and curiosity. When I see Humble Hedgehog and Curious Crane in V-Friends, I'm much more attached to that than Conviction Cockroach and Confident Cobra.

6:17Even I like those characters too. I'm a mix, but people are lacking humility, which is why they don't have confidence. Tough to get to pure confidence. People call it ego. So ego's insecurity disguises confidence. True confidence's foundation is humility. Why would I care what people think? Of course, I'm not the right cup of tea for most. Of course, most people don't think I'm the best looking, the smart. Like people have different flavors, different tastes. Like what the fuck's the matter with everyone? Your audacity is eating up your life. Almost everything I don't get. I get that's the way it's supposed to be.

6:54And I get excited about my curiosity to figure out. I get everything because there's only 13 things. I may not get it in the nuance, but look where I went with the Hak Tua thing. I went to core depths of human's relationship with sexuality. There's only 10 things. There's only two things. Good and bad. Light and dark. And then underneath there's 10, 15 things that represent that. And that's why everything's easy for me to read. Show me a human. Let me audit their parents, where they grew up, in what era, and I'll tell you the fuck they are. Simplicity is what's complicated for most. Shit's simple out here.

7:37You take it all the way to the bottom of like, just care about the health, well-being of the people you love, and fucking, if you can go all the way there, you will skip and whistle through life. Everything you add on top of that, will fuck you up. how do you think we got to a place of overcomplicating everything? Materialism has really hurt people. We've lost our way with valuing stuff and achievement over family and community, which is, you know, people find it. So, you know, I love collecting. I love, but I don't, it's not, it's like, it's my hobby, not my life. My work is my hobby. I do not get my self-validation for my professional career.

8:22I just do not. You know how I play basketball. The fuck does that pickup game mean? It means nothing, right? I go harder in playing a pickup game than I do in running my companies. It means more to me. But why? Because I'm very passionate about it. I love it and I'm not in control. In business, I'm passionate about it, but I'm in control. That's why I want to buy the Jets so I can just take control of this thing that's pissing me off. I also believe that if you care about things that are silly, it's actually very healthy. I'm very hot on this thesis. How do you define what's considered silly and not silly?

9:01What's not silly is like politics is not silly because it affects people. Sports is silly. Is work silly? I think work is... and this is why I'm treading lightly because you see where I was about to go. Everybody has to define it. I think living within your means is not silly.

9:27While I'm on this tangent, let's get to the punchline because we're going pretty deep here. Everybody on earth gets happier if they live within their means. I think the credit card has a chance to go down as one of society's biggest vulnerabilities. Like in history, you know, it's a new invention. We've only been chilling with the credit card for 50 years. Like I think the credit card is, again, it's not the credit card's fault. It actually can be remarkable if you know what you're doing. I just think most people don't know what they're doing. I think people don't live within their means. It's why I always attack the American dream of owning your house.

10:07I love it. Fine, it's an asset. I get it, but motherfucker people don't play it right. Everybody maximizes their deposit, gives them no cash flow. Anything tweaks off, now they're living paycheck to paycheck. This is why I attack fancy cars and watches. Kudos to all the fucking, big shout out, big shout out to all the gangster entrepreneurs who've built something sustainable that allows them to forward a$500 ,000 watch and they don't even think about it the way most people think about buying a$5, you know, soda. I worry about the people that bought it that if God forbid something gets fucked up or their get quich thing, get quick rich thing gets fucked up, they have to sell that to a pawn shop and lose 80%.

10:52It's nuanced. Live within your means. Have four Lambos. If that's within your means, easy peasy and you like them. I live that. I buy very expensive pieces of cardboard. I would argue more people universally think that watches and Lambos are better than trading cards. too many people don't live within their means. That's what's killing. So is a job silly? If you're living deeply within your means, it can be. You got tons of savings. You don't need a job for five years. If you guys, I don't know your situation. If both of you had 10 years worth of salary saved, my intuition is you'd be less concerned about losing your job or stressed about it.

11:33Because you would have optionality. I think people do not realize how much money they spend on how many things during the course of a year and how much. It is gone. People don't think about savings. And everyone's like, inflation, and we got fucked by the boomers. No accountability. You know what the boomers think? The boomers think, like, I didn't go out to eat every day. We cooked at home. You know what the boomers think? They're like, we didn't have seven purses. I had one purse for nine years. I think some people would argue life is short. so I'm just going to do whatever I want. Then stop complaining.

12:08You picked your short path, shut your fucking mouth. By the way, on the record, you can do whatever the fuck you want. Don't complain. By the way, a lot of people are right. For their individual light, right? Like, man makes plan, God laughs. Somebody out there decides to live, burn a fuck, burn it to the ground, like fucking$100 ,000 in debt, great enjoyment, live their life, and they were destined to get hit by a car and die at 41, and they played it right. Potentially. It also depends if that's where you get your joy. I can tell you that's not where I get my joy. I know a lot of people do and that's awesome.

12:42But look, I get my joy of sitting courtside at a Knickscape. That requires money. Again, we all are doing it different. I think everybody can do everything if they shut their fucking mouth. Almost all my content is based on people that talk. I would argue my whole framework is about complaining. I think everything's cool if you don't hurt anyone and you don't complain. you can do whatever the fuck you want. And if you're complaining, I'm assuming you're upset. You know what I complain about? I don't want to go to the gym. And guess what? I don't like it. So complaining comes from a place of unhappiness.

13:16I was going to ask, how black or white are you on complaining? I'm black and white, but that's not, I think that's where we're about to go. Listen, I was raised in a household that demonized the fuck out of it to a point where I think it went too far. Then you start getting into not sharing real life shit. So I think there's a fine line here. Like, I am concerned about that part. But like, yeah, I'm visceral to complaining. Like, I think sharing your struggles is healthy. Therapy, it's how you form a good relationship. Real candor. I think that's different than complaining. And I think that's why everybody's so upset because now people think they're not in charge of their lives.

13:56They literally think that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are their life in America. Stock markets collapsed less, right? several days. Warren Buffett sold all his stocks a couple weeks ago. Remember I mentioned it? I'm like, this is the most historically correct guy in the game. We could have all just followed. I made a reference to Dustin about it. It was on Tea with Gary Vee. It was on Tea with Gary Vee. Let's clip it. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of indications that the economy might be crashing. Warren Buffett just took all his money into cash. He's usually right. So now back to accountability.

14:25Literally right now, do you understand, McKenz, how many people right this second, because we're in it as we're filming everyone. This is the Monday after all this tariff stuff. You could have sold all your stock. you would have made a fortune. Warren Buffett can rebuy all the shit he sold for making a fortune. You could have. I'm not even following public markets and I was aware that Warren did that. I'm like, maybe I should do that. Whose fault is that? Self-accountability sets you free, sets you super free. It's all your fault. And the second you realize that, life becomes phenomenal. And to the counter that, yes, there are things that happen.

15:03Like, was it your fault that you crossed the street when that truck came? I guess, I mean, you crossed the street, but like, I get it. Like, some of us are born with genetic, or somebody who was born right now into the single most poverty-stricken part of our world. Of course there's things in life, but if you decide that you are fully not capable of getting out of it, well, then it's a wrap. And the world's gotta change its tune. That's why I get so mad at eighth place trophies, because then those kids don't think it matters. And when you don't think it matters, then you don't think you can. And when you don't think you can, when adversity hits, you actually think suicide's the right option.

15:43This shit's deeper than people think. And people think it's like, oh, no, no. They disguise it and are like, we need, unless you're a deeply evil person, who wouldn't want it to be okay for everybody? I get that. I'm so deep into that. But where does self-reliance on creating that start and where does it stop and it's always grounded in wealth and they're like why are rich kids like the biggest drug addicts and the biggest fucking alcoholics like money is nothing very there's just so much dude we got to get back to fucking gotta get back to community man i think it's so much better when you you know it's my favorite part of be friends watching these people build a community it's so cool that's why i love sports community it's funny because my my family are really big into sports and i grew up in a house with sports was always there and I just don't have that.

16:34And sometimes I look at my mom and my brother and I'm like, I wish that I cared because they do have so much fun. Yeah. And it's nice for them, right? It's nice for them. But by the way, there's other things. There's religion, which brings so much community so wonderfully. Everything is good and everything is bad. Ready? Let's break it down. Religion, such a great source of community for so many, weaponized by others to kill. Sports, such a good sense for community for some, leads to their gambling addiction, which leads to their downfall for others, right? Wine, such an incredible thing for community and joy in collecting and learning and escapism for some, enables their alcoholism and ruins them for others.

17:20This absolutism is fucking everybody up. My friends, none of this is real. This is all just about you. until you start looking at you, working on you, fixing you, hacking at you, understanding you, loving you. It's all you. Everybody's about that. Politicians, other religions, other countries, other genders, other races, other sexual orientations, other income levels, other, other, them, them, them, them, them. them. Your life is about them, which is why you're unhappy, which is why you're not fully fulfilled. It's you. Get right with you. And then once you get right with you, an amazing thing happens.

18:04Then you start loving them. Then you start wanting to help them. How do you stay consistent with daily content when you're in a highly regulated industry like finance, where every single piece of content has to be improved by compliance and marketing? Who's this? Doesn't say LinkedIn though. Very easy. Because there's people that do it and get ahead of your content. Excuse City USA regulated industries. Yes, I'm aware that there's things for the SEC. And by the way, there's things for not marketing to kids. And by the way, there's things for not marketing to, with alcohol. Diageo's a client. Mattel and Hasbro both have been clients.

18:48Chase and Visa are clients and big clients. I've seen it all. Excuses, your piece of content may take three days to come out or nine days to come out instead of right away because it has to go through compliance. The fuck does that have to do with making content? That means you're just on a nine day behind cycle. You make a piece of content now, comes out in nine days. I make a piece of content tomorrow, comes out in 10 days. I make two pieces of content next day, comes out in 11 days. Sounds like if you keep doing this, you're starting your real life in nine days. Fucking excuses, y 'all. You got all sorts of excuses to me.

19:21I'm a perfectionist. I'm in a regulated industry. I'm this, I'm that. You don't want to do the work. I got excuses too. Mackenzie, I got excuses. Oh, Mike, I was out late on doing whatnot last night. It's so late. Ah, I'm traveling so much from London. I just took a long flight. I got excuses for days when it comes to being in the gym. By the way, this is why it's so easy for me to understand what people are doing at work in their career. Because I do it in the gym. I smell it on you because I got it in me too, not in this category. You saw when we were in the offsite and me and you worked out.

19:55People didn't want that heat. It was like Andy Rips, they don't want it. Right? But Rips is willing to work 19 hours a day. And others might not want that. Right? We all have discipline. Some people are disciplined eaters, working out, parents, readers. you know like entrepreneurs and other people aren't but i've also won in the gym in a certain way that's why i'm like the gym has really mattered to me because i'm so far along compared to where i was that means everybody here can make progress on their personal brand on their career on their entrepreneurial side hustle on their actual startup on their business we can all get better every one of us and that's staying within the walls we work it back to the big shit we We can all start new relationships and break up with ones that are hard.

20:49Spouse, siblings. I said this the other day, I'm not advocating for divorce. I'm saying we can be accountable. You can move to Thailand. You could. Like everything is yes, maybe. And everyone's a no. Because they're more comfortable laying in the muck of their excuse. Second you understand that, you get happy. People don't see that. The last 25 years of parenting is the person sucks. You're like, no, you don't suck, baby. It's just, it's your boss's fault. It's your teacher's fault. It's society's fault. You got fucked. You were born in the wrong era. This Gen Z thing of like wrong era, best era.

21:31Motherfuckers are complaining that the boomers ruined it and making millions of dollars as 22-year-olds. There was zero 22-year-old millionaire self-made fucking 40 years ago. Best era. What 16-year-old could fucking grab a phone, make a video of themselves dancing, and become a multi-millionaire in three years? In 1986, shut your mouth. You should kiss the ground the boomers lived on if you're talking about the era. Separation of wealth, yes. Inflation, yes. But doesn't mean you can't. You can more than ever. You know what really makes me throw up? I really know a lot of shit and a lot of people.

22:17There's people that make content shitting on boomers whose grandparents left them$5 million. People need to shut their fucking mouth is what really needs to happen. If they're spitting poison. Stop being negative, y 'all. Fuck. The only one that's losing if you spew negativity is you. I know you say it's all about the individual piece of content, but I feel like my videos don't get seen by enough people to get me any traction. All my TikToks are me recapping the show Survivor and I don't have many followers. Can you tell me how to find the success you're always talking about where someone with only a few followers gets a million views?

22:54Happens all the time. Now a million's hard. A few 10 followers, million views happens. Happens actually all the time, which is nuts, which is why this is the greatest seer of social media. But the answer to your question is garyb.com slash attention. if you don't have 15 bucks? And the answer is day trading attention. There is a skill to this. The end. This person clearly stinks. And that's okay. I stink at a lot of stuff too. I would argue we stink at TikTok. We're not growing. Like you have to give it love. What's my answer? My answer is I made a 44 page deck for free. Here it is. Flash it. For everybody who's listening, garyvee.com slash attention.

23:32Download it, read it, implement it, do it for a year and then call me back. I have a funny feeling you'll have a post that does well. And if you really are about that life, if you got 20 bucks, go to Amazon and buy Day Trading Attention. I went deep on this last book. It is a fucking banger. Let me do a break real quick. We'll be right back, everybody. I'm just going to check, make sure there's no fires. Kevin asks, Kevin, if you're trying to take your side hustle full time and only have three hours a day to work on it, that's literally it. Would you still suggest working on marketing activities versus sales?

24:04The thought is that if I focus 90 % of my time on sales, I'd be able to go full-time and then have hours to create content, brand, et cetera. I'm cool with that. He's saying, if I work on sales, I'll get to monies quicker that will allow me to then do marketing. I'm cool with that. None of my advice is universal. That's actually a tremendous thing to say in this. I'm glad it came up early. A lot of my advice is like valid to 78%, 91%, 83%. I'm trying to go in the margins. Now, the stuff I talk about emotionally, not tactically we're now talking marketing with kevin the emotional stuff like don't be insecure that's a hundred so don't use what i just said to be like oh cool i could be fucking i can use protect perfection as an excuse for i can be a dick like no but the tactical shit marketing is is better than sales because it's sales that come to you his circumstance that's the macro That's 80%.

25:01In this scenario, Kevin needs to get to that paper to be able to leave his job, to be able to go into content. Yeah, I'm cool with that. That being said, for Kevin included, one post on TikTok and one post on LinkedIn could go viral and outflank everything he's doing in sales. That being said, it's more practical, it sounds like, for him to go ham on sales, get that money up, and allows him to jump and start. And then, by the way, he probably has to double down on sales that first year. to like solidify it, right? To make it stable. And then he can go into marketing. By the way, it's what I did with VaynerMedia.

25:37I wasn't making content for VaynerMedia in 2009, 10, 11. I was doing sales. I wasn't really doing content until the Ask Gary Vee Show in 14. I was doing one every TV up until 11. I was MIAing 12 and 13. And I came back in 14 with Ask Gary Vee Show. And then we got to cook it. Now I'm also zeroing in on one thing. So me doing marketing, Wine Library TV, and doing Twitter and Facebook is why I was able to sell. So I started with marketing. Then I did sales. Then I went back to marketing. Got it? So if I didn't have Wine Library TV and had a million followers on Twitter, none of the Campbell Soup or the NHL or GE or PepsiCo would have hired me.

26:25So it's a little bit, you know? Yeah. Barbara said, I am 44 years old and decided to become an author. I'm currently working on a book as a self-publisher. Part of that is creating a social media presence to reach people, but social media really can be extremely draining and time-consuming for me. The reality is I'm not really into that part of the process and instead just want to write. So I really need to be the one to do all of that in order to be noticed. If you wanted to sell, Barbara. Now, good news, Barbara. You could be an author. that is one in a million that just wrote such a book that it went viral by itself.