The Truth About Personal Branding (Nobody Talks About This)

0:00This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. Gary, one of the things that strikes me about you is the fact that you don't talk just about strategy but you talk just as much about who we are. Yes. And how we really understand who we are and why that's important. Why is that so important to you? Just as important as any business strategy. Because I think it's the foundation. I don't, you know, when I think about this building, we can talk about how beautiful the lighting is or the carpet or the paint, but without these steel beams, there is no building. And I believe one's relationships with oneself is the concrete and the steel that the foundation is built on.

0:48And so after half a decade in the 2010 to 15, when I was telling people what to do and really giving it to them and really giving it to them, I couldn't understand why they weren't doing it. And that sent me down the road. You could see my content evolve in my career because I had an epiphany of like, why are they not doing this? This is right. It's like what I just talked about with social shopping. Social live shopping is right. But then why isn't anyone doing this? Oh my God, I took for granted the way I was parented, the self-esteem I had, my vision of gratitude and patience. maybe I should talk about this and that's how I can get them there and it's become a very big part of how I see the world.

1:33But the fascinating thing about you is and I can relate to this a lot you talk about having two parents one was why the optimism for you and the other one's so pessimistic so many of us go through that we have that in our lives how did you manage to listen to the optimism and drown out? The truth is I got lucky my father who was the more cynical pessimistic reserved one he worked every minute I barely saw him my whole life so by the time I got to work with my father and work for him when I was 14 I was baked I was I was molded and then I was I was there now my father taught me a lot of great things from work ethic I'll tell you my mother and I are a little bit more gift of gab this is why I can do what I want.

2:21My father was much more, and I would tell you that without my father, I definitely don't think I could be the man I am. I think I would have gone down more of a bullshit path and would have just been the bad version of someone like me that has this level of charisma and salesmanship. And so, you know, I just got fortunate in when I got both of them. You know, and by the time I got to my dad, his negativity, I was visceral too. In fact, I think a lot about what I did with my father from 15 to 35. In a lot of ways, I was the emotional bringer to the table in our relationship. And it's one of the things I'm most proud of.

3:04Do you know what's really interesting is we can have parents who kind of come at us with that kind of pessimistic thing of, because they want the best for us. Right, it comes out of fear. 100%. They don't want us to marry the wrong person. They don't want us to not get a job that doesn't pay. Parenting weaponizes fear, thus making them negative. So how do you kind of break out of that? Because it can take a lot. Do you know what's really interesting? I was 41 years of age when I realized that it wasn't my responsibility to make people happy. And it was, I knew that, it's weird because I knew that intellectually.

3:47when I knew that in my soul. Changed everything. Everything. Like when I tell you everything. Look, this is why I'm so motivated. You know, I wish my generation, your generation had this. Gary V is the person I wish I had at 15. I wish I had a business person to look up to that was, if I may say, cool. But also talked about important things, not just money, not just stuff. and I try to be the person that would have most affected me.

4:26Do you know what's really interesting? I've been following you for many years, as many people have, but I used to think you were super obnoxious. How could you not? I know, I believe it. Of course. So say like 2008-ish. I get it. And then I was like, I can't hear. Who's this loud guy cursing? I couldn't hear what you were saying and then a few years later, you'd kind of mellowed out of it and I was like, whoa, the wisdom that is happening here is incredible. Yeah, I mean, I think when I first hit the scene, you know, it was 2008, the economy was in a bad place and, you know, work ethic and going at it, it was so obvious to me how big the opportunity was that I, at some level, couldn't contain my excitement, which I think, to your point, You know, when you're as jerseied out, you know, as you know, cursing was, you know, there was plenty of people on stage now that didn't hear me once I started cursing, but in 2008, it was kind of not acceptable.

5:25Dressing casual for a businessman, that was not the right thing. And so, you know, in hindsight, I think I was a little ahead of my time, but I was comfortable with being misunderstood because even in 2008, I knew we'd be sitting here. I knew that I wasn't a flash in the pan I knew I was running the marathon not the sprint I knew what my north star was and so it's really interesting to me that you're so big on video and a lot of people I was shocked by the number of people who had never posted on LinkedIn when you asked that question in the audience and people are scared so you know or don't know the opportunity yes you know LinkedIn is not universally understood the way that Instagram and YouTube are But how do you get yourself out there and how do you kind of overcome that thing of, you know, maybe I'm going to come across as obnoxious or whatever, or what's the art of communication, if you will?

6:23Well, the art of communication is coming from a place of truth. Yeah. You know, and that truth can come in many shapes and forms. You just might be funny, so be funny. I think too many people get caught in talking about things they don't know, which then inherently makes them scared. I'd be petrified I mean I just gave that entire keynote improv but if I had to go give a keynote right now around Saturn in front of all those people I'd be petrified I don't know anything about Saturn and so I think one of the biggest truths that I live by is stay in things that you know you know and or at least that you're passionate about you know opinions are okay as long as you have the humility to understand that other opinions matter too And so, you know, I think most people are struggling with putting things out there predominantly based on high school dynamic insecurities.

7:19How do I look? I mean, I've watched many people start and stop in the same day because one random person says you're stupid, you're wrong, and they just clam up. And I'm empathetic to that. That is the insecurity that I'm trying to fight for and advocate against every day. I think it's practice. I think it's building up self-esteem. Your revelation at 41 of like people pleasing or you know for other people it's a revelation of like yeah high school that's why I say the things I say on stage. If one person up down today heard me and said high school's over and they realized wait a minute I am living my life like I'm 16.

7:58My stuff back there yeah. Then mission accomplished. The power of knowing. Something by the way that I'm not great at. Really? I'm still trading too much on the power of yes. The power of no is something I continue to struggle with. But go ahead. Tell me more. Tell me why you struggle with no. Multiple reasons. I have people pleasing DNA. Believe it or not. Gary V on stage is very candorous and I'm able to shoot it straight but I hate disappointing. So I like saying yes. I also believe in serendipity. so many of the greatest things that have happened to me has been saying yes to things that didn't look good on paper so I continue to chase.

8:43How do you make those difficult decisions then?

8:49Intuition, logic, surrounding myself with people like admins and chiefs of staff and team members that help me at times. It's something I'm still on a journey of. I'm still working on now. just a couple of final questions in terms of personal brand in the age of AI yes how do we do that is it going to be easier is it easier of course when you're competing with what you were talking about you know the influencers who are AI and you are trying to bring something yourself competing is a forever game that's just you want to be a personal brand you're going to have to compete I always tell people like if you want something great it should be hard right You're going to compete.

9:33You're going to compete with yourself. You're going to compete with other things, meaning Instagram. It doesn't just compete with TikTok and Facebook. It competes with Netflix. It competes with a great book. It competes with us having a nice dinner. Everybody's competing constantly. Competition is a very misunderstood energy in our society. In fact, one of the missteps that I think we've made is we've demonized competition. I think eighth place trophies have been well-intended mistakes. and so how do you compete? You have no choice. How do you level up then? By providing value and I think most people struggle with that because they're selfish.

10:12Interesting. Most people want to be famous or have followers for themselves and so everything that's coming out of their mouth is in self-interest. Very hard to build a community and bring value if everything's about me. And finally, what's your power play? Giving more than I take. I love it. Gary Vee. Thank you. Amazing. Absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much. Such a pleasure. Brilliant.