The Ultimate Advice for Every 20 Year Old

0:00This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. What you're about to watch is something that I know will bring value to so, so many of you. It's a long clip, but it's advice that 65 % of my audience really needs and I hope you enjoy it. How old are you? Thank you, too. Perfect. You're at the point now where why don't you just take three years and just do and see what that tastes like because you know what fucking filling journals taste like. because I think one of the things that really works for me is I'm not worried about the micro but I think about the macro. Oh, I don't know where the fuck this just came from but I just walked in and saw it.

0:37This helps me a lot. Like, I just, like, what the fuck am I doing with you right now? There's a lot more to do with the fucking showing up to the funeral than it has to do with fucking the bank account. And you know what's funny is if you actually live your life like the funeral, you end up making stuff for the bank account by accident. You end up meeting somebody who, you know? Like it's so crazy when I think about like how I invested in Twitter and made all that money. It was more about giving shit about my funeral. Like doing the right thing by a bunch of people which, you know, led to going to South by Southwest which led to me meeting the Twitter guys which meant, you know, like it's just.

1:14Yeah, like following your passion, following your list. Yeah, I mean you just got to really think about like how, like I'll tell you like even in four seconds maybe some of the context Robert gave me maybe making some assumptions but But when you're thoughtful, like, I think one of the things that people struggle with is actually being very real with themselves. The difference between understanding who you are versus who you wish you were. And I think that's something that I'm always very fascinated by when I have a meeting like this. Like, what kind of read do you have on yourself? And how, like, you know, I think I would struggle a lot if I I didn't really genuinely know who I was.

1:55And then once you know who you are, you get more comfortable with what you're up to. So if I asked you right now, and I think it ebbs and flows when you're 28, when you're 32, when you're 57, like if I asked you right this second, what do you want to happen and what would you say? What would happen with my creative projects or just with life or what? Sure. All of it. What do I want to happen? I want to have a life where I'm able to create with fun, create with a team. I want to put out content that affects people's lives for the better in terms of helping them feel good or better about themselves and their relationships and cultivating relationships that are meaningful.

2:44I want to travel with my man and have property, international property, and try to get a lot travel for fun and also for play and also a little bit of time for work but controlling and living life with ease and also impacting people for the better in the process. That's cool. What are you hoping, as you're rolling up to this office, what are you hoping for? You know what? For real, by the way. Yeah, for real, for real. I mean there are, you know shit that I do not know. So I honestly just want to pick your brain about a couple of key things and really ideally what I was hoping and what I expected to get in a place where I know you and I could Hit me up.

3:29Start building, start the process of building a relationship. Right. Okay. Let's start with this. If you want to, listening to what you said, the first thing I will tell you, the best thing, I think, I hope, I think the first best thing I can tell you is don't front. The number one mistake that people that aspire to the sentences that you just spit out of your mouth, the number one mistake they make is they try to over sell themselves because they think they need it to have people's attention. Try to over sell themselves. Correct. So let me give you an example. Whether it's life coach, inspirational figure, business coach, whatever form it takes.

4:14I think it's much smarter for you to talk to the world about your process of going through this than the advice that you think you should be giving them. And that's where people are struggling. I got real lucky. I've never said this DRock so pay real close fucking attention. I'm not sure that if the internet was around in its current form that I would be as successful. because at 22 and 23 I knew I was special and I might have not been patient enough to first build a business, first get experience. I didn't start talking to the world until I was 35.

4:53And I love to say to you, be patient, to you to be patient. I'm not sure if I would have been. I'd like to think I would have been but the freedom of putting, like I love to hear myself talk. Like, you know? And I think anybody that has spot, like think about, so do you. And so do so many of you. Like that's what it is. And it's nice. There's nothing wrong with that. It sounds bad. It's funny. A lot of what I deal with now is being okay with not being politically correct. Work-life balance. Cursing. Whatever. Meritocracy. You know, I don't know if you've seen this. Did you see that I was on The Breakfast Club?

5:33So, I don't know if you watched that interview or some of the content that I've been building on. I'm on a hot no excuses kick. I have a lot of female entrepreneurs. I have a lot of fans that are African Americans. I spent a lot of time in that community in my college years. I just think I'm giving the best advice to women and minorities in business today, which is tough. And it's crazy. You have to understand, in my body right now, it doesn't feel great. It feels a lot better going somewhere else. The problem is, it's the truth. Like the market just doesn't care. And what's cool is when you actually say fuck it, then you start betting on your strengths.

6:15Do you know I was a businessman in a world where going to smart colleges was the only thing that mattered for businessmen? You were only a good businessman if you went to Harvard Business School. And then I reversed it. Like I'm like I'm a DNF student. Like I curse. I don't dress the part. I do me and then you know what happened? The world came to me. And so I would tell you that the best thing that you're gonna walk out of here with is something that took me a long time to really realize is if you wanna pull this off and you want people listening to you, there's only one thing, the truth. The fucking, and everybody says that fucking cliche term.

6:59It's unbelievable how much that's the reason I'm winning. and I think it's easier when you have a level of success and it's harder when you're climbing up the ladder but I think that there's a lot of people who if they talked about the journey of the climb could win. I think it's the best piece of advice I can give right now to a bunch of 20 to 30 year olds that feel that they should be talking to the world and bringing value. Talk about your journey of trying to find that voice and synthesize it properly versus let me tell, go find, you know, because the problem is a 30, 40, 50 year old listening to your one minute rant video on Instagram, even if it's powerful, there's a level of cynicism of like, what do you know?

7:45Yeah. And I think that that's fair. And look, you could just be a whiz kid about the world and that exists, but I do think there's a smarter way to context it. You know, it's like starting the sentence of you should versus you know it's funny right now I can say you should because I built so much but if I was at 20 it needed to be like my intuition says and that changes everything or when I look at or when I met with Gary today the takeaway I got was that's got it? Hey everybody 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.

8:31It'll make my mom super happy. Yeah. What your perspective is on cultivating relationships with people who not only believe in your ideas but can actually help fund or will point you to funds because right now all of my friends are broke in trying to create some shit. You know, it's like, I can't borrow from your negative bank account. So like, how do you get into a position where you are around people who are influencers or who also will donate or whatever the case may be? The market will give you money whether it's Kickstarter, I'll give you money. You just have to give somebody what you want it against.

9:05So the biggest problem right now is finding money is not the problem, really it's not. I'll explain. That's definitely my problem right now. Well let me explain, it's not. It's how you're looking at the world. Okay. There's things like AngelList and Kickstarter. Do you know how much harder it was for your mother to get money? Oh yeah. Yeah, I remember that shit. Like, do you know how hard somebody would slap you? Do you know that the 1973 version of you, if he was sitting here, would punch you in your fucking mouth? Because money's the last thing you have to worry about. AngelList, Kickstarter, the world can give it to you.

9:39You start a Kickstarter. Can. You know why most of them fail? Because most shit is whack. Because most stuff isn't good. Because most people don't give a fuck. You can go to AngelList and hit up all the angel investors. The real question is, before you go there, is I think most people say, everybody says to me, Gary, I can't find money. And then I go, cool, I'll give you money. What do you got? And then they don't know. So tell me, what am I buying? Your brand? What, in perpetuity? Got it? We're living through a really interesting time in the world right now where people don't like, where art and science and business are colliding and they're all very different.

10:25I understand the art that's in your heart, but how are you gonna, yeah, see I got lucky. I had the art and the business. But like, okay, what am I buying? There's no buying, buying into Gary Vaynerchuk would have been a really good idea for a lot of people, but it wasn't for sale, and I didn't even know how to sell that. Like what do you sell? Like what are you gonna make 20 % of my speaking fees? Or my book deal? Or my TV deal? I just, like right? I guess you can do that. I actually do think that plays out over time, but if I said to you, cool, I got money for you, what are you selling me? Like what's the business?

10:55What I hear in that is when you show up with more content that allows people to see more of what they're investing in. No. What I would say is what's the container I'm putting my money in? You could have unlimited content. You could have 4 ,000 episodes of a podcast and the greatest Instagram account I've ever seen and the funniest Snapchat and Instagram stories I've ever seen. Great. So that's not inherently letting people know what they're investing in. That lets them know a little bit about you but what's the vessel? Got it? So when I meet Fuck Jerry or when I meet the Fat Jewish, I know they've got attention on Instagram three years ago that really matters.

11:32What am I investing in? Oh, oh Fat Jewish, you're making a rosé? Oh, I can put$25 ,000 into that and own 8 %? Now you've given me something to put the container in. Oh, Fuck Jerry, you want to become BuzzFeed? You're going to build a website and have traffic and sell ads? You've got to come to me and say, what am I investing in? You have to put your thing into a container that's investable. Nobody's writing a check to a person. Yeah, okay, package it. Package it. And then it gets hard because once you package it, you have to be able to explain it in business terms. And that's not necessarily what everybody does.

12:11This is where it gets into partnerships. One thing I would tell you based on the vibe I'm picking up, if you and I both grew up in Milwaukee, you know, I would have been a great partner for you because I could have been the businessman to the art. If that's how you're thinking about it. Maybe you're the business part but it's not what you've been bringing up yet. I don't know, I've been in a position where I've had to do like both right now, you know? Well look, I mean, you should be putting out content on a very regular basis. You should start a pillar show whether it's, I mean, vlogging I think is very fascinating.

12:44You know, you should be doing Instagram stories and Snapchat chat stories at scale. You should be putting out seven to 25 pieces of content on both those platforms a day. A day. And let me explain how. Don't go fancy. Document versus create. When you make, you like that, right? It's a big shift. When I say seven to 25 you say, my God, how do I produce seven to 25 meaningful things that will have me respected versus document. See that's always the thing is like meaningful that will get me respected. I feel like anybody can put out shit. I don't want to put out shit. But shit is subjective my man.

13:30And I got good news for you. You're fully in control. Yeah, yeah. People are always like Gary, I'm in control. How many things I say no, they send me quotes to put out on Instagram, nope. I'm in control. Who makes the final call in like productions? The producer, the director, I don't know, whoever. Who's the final person? Producer. Great. You're the producer, my man. Yeah. Right? I don't know, you take a selfie with a nice skyline and you're like, eh. But you got to put out stuff. And you got to fabricate it. Like, I still can't believe how many people that live in New York don't use New York people.

14:08If I were you and I had an hour right now, go in the fucking park right now. I don't know. Like go back to your basketball roots. Stand outside the garden right there and be like, what do you think about the Knicks upcoming season? Yeah, interview four people, one person gets into a thoughtful conversation, he was the former ball boy in 1957, it's a nice story and boom. You see where I'm going? People aren't starting. People aren't starting. They're just not making. They're thinking, they're pondering, they're strategizing, they're debating. The difference between people like me and the far majority is I'm just doing it all times.

14:44I'm doing so much that I've decided to have a fucking man walk around with a camera and follow me because who knows when it's going to happen. And you know what's so funny? In parallel in my brain right now, when I'm going to leave here, I'm going to say to him, DRock, I want this whole thing cut. The whole thing. Like what I'm giving you, so many need right now. So I'm like fuck it, let's just put it out. Right? So I, like you mentioned before, you know, you have to be putting out content all the time. I personally go through these periods of like extreme creativity and extreme just chill. How do you motivate yourself or how do you continue this process of like go, go, go, go, go and balance that with like self-care and checking in with yourself?

15:21I do what feels right to me. You do what feels right to you? Yeah. So if I got to check out for the week, I check out for the weekends all the time. No creations. People are like, where's your Snapchats? Like, I don't know. I've got to be with my family. Like, I don't punish myself.

15:36But... That's really hard for me right now. Good, of course. I feel that same thing of like, dude, you're not putting shit out. You're not doing enough. You have to follow me. You're not doing shit. I agree. Alright, Gary. See where I'm going? Yeah. I don't know. Life. I don't think you should squander it but like, I mean like, you just gotta, you know, listen. This is back to do you know yourself or do you aspire to be something you might actually not be? This is the toughest question of it all, my man. I mean if you want to be respected and really known, show the fuck up. Are you fucking kidding me with a week, going a week without doing something?

16:20You know, I don't know how much into my content you are but I always say nobody you've ever met got there without the hard work. Nobody you know. It's just real. You know, do you know how insane DailyVee and the Snapchat stories has been to everybody? They didn't realize how hard I was going at it. You can't believe how many people, you know how many fucking people used to say the word luck? That word luck has gone right back, like nobody has the audacity to say that to my face now and I love it. And that's why I did it. I did it, I made it for you because you can watch it and be like okay. But I think yours is different.

16:58I think a lot of theirs is different. It's because I'm not fancy about it. Document over create. I mean there's so much magic going on. Dude, you're in fucking New York City. You know how many people, again I'm gonna cut this whole thing because this is the advice everybody needs. You know how many of them sitting in a place that's not New York City? You got a billion fucking stories out there. You don't feel motivated that you need to tell a story today or create? Go let somebody else to do it. You have so much charisma. You walked in here in two seconds. You walked in here in two seconds and I'm like okay, this kid's got a little mad.

17:31Like you can roll up on anybody and get them feel comfortable. Yeah. Except racists. I do that shit every day. I can do that too. But do you know what I mean? Yeah. That's so fucking awesome. So you can't create? Distribute. Got it? You can't create today? That's what I have. Facilitate. You know? Yeah, man. Yeah. There's no excuse for not talking to the world. It just doesn't have to be your thoughts and words every time. Yeah, thanks for that. I'm on fire right now. Now I'm on fire, DRock. Do you have like a few more minutes? Yeah, I mean look, I'm going until they pull me out. You're already eight minutes over.

18:12Building a team. So you're winning. Don't even worry, don't even think about it. You're not even close to that. Why not? Because you don't have the money to really build the team, right? You can have homies help you out along the way. Truth is. I feel like I've exhausted those resources though. Good, let me give you a real good answer I got a feel for you right now. You need to work on you before you worry about a team. What do you mean? I mean you got to get your shit together. Like you're responding to the right thing. I don't know much. What I do well is I talk and then through reaction I listen.

18:41That's how I get a lot done in a meeting like this, right? I can tell that you've got certain things that you need to do. Before you worry about a team, get your thing in place. Consistency first. Yeah, get great at what we just talked about. If I go look now, and I'm going to check now, I'm curious. If I go look in a couple weeks and I'm like, oh my God, six Instagram stories per day, like fucking, you know, four Instagram posts, like he's been on Twitter on point, his Facebook, oh he's got a YouTube channel now. Like create, distribute, you know, do all that stuff. Interview, like, pfft. There's so much creative shit, man.

19:20Like, I'm way more creative than I realized because stuff comes so natural to me. Like for example, like do a meme, and that's just a slang term for it. Like go take a picture on every odd street in New York. In Manhattan. Like I don't know, like go start at 113 and then 111 and 109. Like anything could be, like right? Like call it odd corner and just literally do an interview every day on Instagram for a minute starting at 113th all the way down. That's cool, right? And like that's something just making shit up. Like I don't know. Like odd corner. Hashtag odd corner. It's your show. Every fucking Monday you go to fucking 113th the next week, 1-11, literally you stand there until somebody walks by and you interview that person and that's the fucking show.

20:09I think what I'm good at is building a pillar up top that creates content below. DailyVee, Ask GaryVee Show, right? And then all flows from there. Where did this quote come from? I don't know. You know, like somewhere along the way. That's what's powerful and I think you need to, I think one thing that people struggle with is they think it needs to come from them and it needs to come from the structure down instead of, got it? And that's why you wake up and you're like, damn, I'm not feeling, you know how hard it is to manifest that kind of original creative thing from the bottom? But if you literally lived your life under show, think of yourself as like CNN or MSNBC, Monday is Odd Corner, that's it.

20:52If you whiteboarded now on like mini shows that you could do, Monday is Odd Corner, Tuesday's like subway shots. Wednesday's like suburbs. You're just literally going out. Like, you know, and all of a sudden, suburbs clicks and all of a sudden, Toyota's hitting you up and saying, hey, we'll pay you and you'll drive a Toyota to Jersey, to Long Island. See where I'm going? But you gotta put yourself in that position. But what you then are able to do is you don't have to think. You know why podcasts have worked for a lot of people? Because they interview people. so they don't have to do the work.

21:29That's right. That's why when everybody's like, oh, I love this podcast. Oh, Gary Vee. And I'm like, you don't get it. They're just interviewing people. I'm creating original from the get. My version of that was, what's a better version of that? Oh, answer people's questions. Also scalable, but brings value to those individuals and the entire community. So, got it? Got it. Good, man. give me an update in 30 days send me an email I'm dead serious this is you know you came in here and said I'd like to start the process of a relationship ideas are shit execution's the game right email me in 30 days either you're gonna email me in 30 days and say look what I did or what you're gonna do is not email me thanks bro you got it brother appreciate you take care 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 journey See you later.