Why I'm Comfortable Giving People Advice

0:00This is the Gary Vee audio experience. Listen, how does one become an expert on a thing that is still growing and people still try to figure it out? I mean, social media. By being a practitioner. You know, there was a day when painting was new and the people that became good at it were the ones that were painting. It's amazing to me how many people have opinions about Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn or or making videos or doing this kind of podcast and getting people to listen to it. Whole lot of people with opinions who've never done it. And so I believe the great way to be great at anything is to be a practitioner.

0:41People ask me all the time, I make the analogy, you can read about push-ups, but if you want the results that push-ups give you, you have to do the push-ups. And I just think a lot of people with business, entrepreneurship, and specifically being a social media content creator or a modern media digital creator. Read a lot, talk a lot, pontificate a lot and don't do a lot. The way I figured out how to have my podcast, the way I figured out my YouTube show, the way I figured out everything I do is by doing. And you're gonna get some bumps and you're gonna make some mistakes. I think most people don't do because they're worried about what other people think.

1:21And who are they? What kind of generation are we talking about? Everybody. I think everybody. You know, I think everybody. I don't think this is as generational as people think. I think this is more psychology than it is, you know, none of the four people sitting in this room, well, Babin's young, but the three of you, you're pretty, how old are you? Yeah. How, how, 30? Can you talk into our sound engineer? That's right. I bring everybody into these podcasts. I like to break the walls and visualize for you, everybody who's listening. Look, the three of us didn't, like 35, I would say, look, you know, it's not about how old you, I'm 42 and I feel more curious and more understanding of the culture and the game than plenty of people that are 18.

2:02I think it's a mindset. And so it's a very interesting time to be alive. There's so much opportunity and I'm excited to be a part of it. But you are a very, how do you say? Special. Yes, you're very special. No, but the thing is that you have this psychological skill that a lot of people come to you with a lot of problems and they try to get advices from you and you just give them advices. What kind of skill is that? That's psychiatrist, that's psychologist, that's right. You know, if I was the son of me, instead of me, I would have probably went to a top five university and been a big time psychiatrist or psychologist, like 100%.

2:50because I was born an immigrant in a different environment and probably had a little bit too much competitive entrepreneurial DNA. But yeah, I think it's interesting as my life evolves that some of my natural skills are becoming more clear and it's less about being a salesman or being good at digital marketing. I'm very comfortable giving advice because I think I'm undereducated and I keep things very simple. like human behavior comes very natural to me which is why I've been very good at predicting what people are going to do next it's also the same skill that allows me to know that most of people's issues come from their parents or the environment they were born in most things are very simple we don't want to look them in the face you know Facebook's not changing us Facebook's not making us bad people Facebook's exposing that we were bad to begin with you know but these are funny things to me.

3:49They're historical. I'm a big fan of history. It was the one class I was actually decent at, and I think that's another thing that's worked well for me. This is just rinse and repeat. What's happening right now on Facebook and Twitter is the same reason that governments, when they want to be dictatorships, control the media, because the media controls the mindset. And so I think my skill is human behavior, and I think my vice or my intrigue on another part of my life is building businesses and I think that's what, you know, I bought Bitcoin in 2014. Not because I guessed, not because of anything else, but because I could see what was going to happen in 17 and 18 and yeah, I think, you know, I make the joke earlier about special but I do feel special and I don't say that with ego.

4:41I say that as a compliment to my parents and to my circumstance and to America and to the Soviet Union for that matter. The circumstances of who I became are far more of a factor than me. But I do see around corners and not because I'm Nostradamus but because I deeply am consumer-centric. I watch what people wear. When haircuts change, I'm fascinated by that. You know, when fashion, I would have been great in fashion. I would have been, if I had that gene, like my daughter is very creative and I can see she has a lot of me in her. I can see her being a big time fashion player in the future because if she deploys her creativity to fashion and she can see around corners, she'll be an innovator of style.

5:28And so, yeah, things are very simple to me. But social media and the human brain goes hand in hand. I mean, psychology. And human brain goes hand in hand with everything. Social media is very important because it's communication. You and I, right now, are sitting in some room at some conference, this amazingly handsome, talented sound engineer has a very small device. Doesn't look so complicated to me. I wouldn't know what to do with it, but it's not big. And I know that this whole enterprise here is not costing a whole lot to create and not costing a whole lot to distribute if you guys know what you're doing on it.

6:10Doesn't cost me a lot to distribute on my podcast, which is a top 50 podcast in the world, that whole enterprise used to cost millions of dollars in studio costs, in distribution costs. We're living in the internet age. Why don't people get this more and faster? Because people look backwards instead of looking forward. 90 % of people default into looking behind them instead of looking ahead of them. It's the human psyche. I think most people are scared of change and they look for negatives. There's people that are trying to blame suicide rates on social media. It's laughable. The issue with suicide rates in the world is bad parenting and many other variables and maybe social media.

7:00But to binarily blame a media is silly and so I think when I look at what happens, So I think there's a lot of technology fear mongering. One thing I like to say a lot is that we put writing a letter on a pedestal, but kids that are texting are bad. I think that's crazy. The message is important, not the thing that delivers it. But how can you inspire your kids? I mean, you had a total different kind of... I can't inspire them the way that I was inspired. Because they have too much? 100%. And they have other things. They have a father who's gonna end up being famous, and that might be good or bad.

7:46First, the way I'm gonna inspire my kids is to first do what I always do, which is audit who they are, not who I hope they are. I first have to deploy self-awareness and empathy and understand who they are. So for my daughter, who's eight, I'm starting to get an understanding, and in three or four or five years, I think I'm gonna have a very good understanding. I'm gonna inspire my two children and what I try to inspire everybody who's listening to this is I don't want them to become me. I only want one thing for people that I have. Really, outside of health, the only thing I wish for people is them to love what they do as much as I do.

8:22When I do new podcasts or new video shows, I love reading the comments of the audience that don't know me. Inevitably, 5 % of the audience will leave a comment that refers to drugs. if they want to be really snarky, they'll say, you know, cocaine, Ritalin, you know. They think that I'm on something and I always reply because I've never tried smoking a cigarette, let alone Dunn-Adderall. I reply with, so they'll say cocaine and I'll reply, gratitude. I'm so grateful that I do what I love every day and what I love for clarification is just being an entrepreneur. Playing. The challenges, the risk, the excitement.

9:13But you're also high on your own energy. You have tremendous energy. I have tremendous energy because it builds momentum. When you're doing what you want to be doing for a long period of time, it builds momentum. I didn't have the same energy in school. I hated school. I was optimistic. I was high energy. That's my DNA. but not like this. This is now a supernova because now I'm 20 years into being in my zone. The breath of fresh air, the exhale I had on the first day that I worked at my dad's liquor store, like worked. Like there was no more school ever again. That was incredible. That is a, I will never replicate that feeling again.

9:55I miss that feeling. It's funny, I've never talked about this out loud. That might have been the best day of my life in a lot of ways. knowing that I was embarking on the thing that I was meant to do. So if my children want to give away all my money, want to paint in the Himalayas, want to start a school, or want to climb the mountain and be bigger than me, I just want to inspire them to be themselves and support them mentally. But shouldn't you that didn't like the school system at all, shouldn't you be the one to start a school? I sure should. And? And I will. Call me. You got it. And by the way, I think I am.

10:37And I've always dreamed of starting a school because I wanted to fucking stick it back to them so that we could build a school for people like me. What's interesting is I'm realizing I'm doing it now. I have an enormous amount of 10 to 15 year olds following me across YouTube and Instagram and I'm teaching them, boy. You know, maybe I'm not teaching them the way that people think teaching is done, but I am teaching them and I see it. And oh, I have a great story. I was flying yesterday from Gothenburg to Stockholm and I sat with a man whose 18-year-old son is obsessed with me. He lives in New Jersey of all places, small world.

11:14And he said that I made a, so he's telling me everything and I'm very flattered. And he's a young man, this father, he's 44, I'm 42 but he has an 18-year-old son. And he says, my son's, you know, I was a good student. the father's saying my son wasn't as good but he wants to be an entrepreneur and every day he lives at home still and every day I walk to work, come home anytime I'm going by him when he's out and not in his room and working on the kitchen or living room, I hear your voice. And then he turned to me very emotionally and he said thank you. And it's kind of making me a little bit emotional right now.

11:52He said, my son's such a better man now because of you. And then he started telling me reasons, accountability. You know, I'm teaching real stuff, not memorizing who the fourth president was. And then he talked about me talking about my father. And he says that his son's very competitive with him. And I was very competitive with my father. But I put out some content about how I think about my dad, even though we're different, even though there's a lot I don't agree with. And he said to me that his relationship with his son has fundamentally changed since then. But what do you say? What do you say to these youngsters that make such an impact to those who are listening and maybe haven't heard you yet?

12:34I tell them the truth. I tell them the truth. Their parents aren't telling them the truth. Their school isn't telling them the truth. I tell them the truth. I tell them a lot of things they like to hear, like fuck the system, forget about what your parents want for you, this is your life, do not live with regret. and then I tell them other truths they don't like which is you're fucking entitled, you haven't proven shit, stop being full of shit, like life is long, be kind, nobody gives a shit if you have a Mercedes or a Rolex, shut the fuck up, get to work. I tell them the truth. Okay, I'm laughing here to Thomas as well because we have teenagers and like, you're right.

13:15Anyway. And you know what, let's hold on to that second, first second because it could be very valuable for your listeners. I'm fascinated by what you just did to what I just said and how that plays out in my entire life. When I go to Cannes for the marketing festival and I go on stage and I talk and I talk about stuff nobody agrees with me in the industry but then at two o 'clock in the morning they'll say to me after a couple of cocktails, you're right. When parents hear my stuff and they're smart and they're smart, they don't like a lot of what I say but they'll tell me you're right. You just did it.

13:51What I'm trying to figure out is what makes one do something that they know isn't right when they know it's right. What is creating that behavior? What I think is happening is they're worried about what other people think. I have a lot of empathy for a 49-year-old woman raising two teenagers in a neighborhood where she has a lot of friends, where she believes in something, but she doesn't do it because she doesn't want the scrutiny from the other moms. I understand. I just don't know why she's choosing herself over her children I think about that stuff I don't want my kids to be entrepreneurs too many people think of their children as property and as indicators of who they are 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