Gary Vaynerchuk: The Brutal Blueprint for Real Freedom

23:29Actually, it makes me feel more comfortable. I don't like the pace of like, you ask, I answer. Like, let's keep interrupting the whole time. Anybody who's listening and has a feel on us is going to enjoy it more anyway. it's practicality brother this book's only other title could have been called practicality the blueprint for entrepreneurship well okay so let's take a look at that so I'm in the cubicle I'm a marketing manager for Crest Toothpaste and I'm like sick of it and I want to break out incomes are going down I'm worried about my job because they're outsourcing everything to China what should I start to do the first thing you should do is you shouldn't have fucking watched House of Cards this entire fucking Saturday.

24:12That's the first thing you should do. Okay. And when I say that rant... I think I did that actually this Saturday. Great, but guess what? You've won a little bit already. Right. You've earned your chance. You're not complaining. If you complain, and by the way, you can make$20 ,000 a year and not be complaining. So this is not about how much success you've had. This is complaining. This is, oh, woe is me. I'm in this cubicle. You're complaining to yourself. and even worse and I know you guys you're complaining to others your spouse, your girlfriend, your brother, your mom if you were complaining the first thing that has to happen is the elimination of Madden the softball team house of cards any playing games leisure is what you give up to have the audacity to build your life that you want.

25:06So if you didn't watch House of Cards for 13 hours this weekend, it would have given you 13 hours to map out what you're going to do to get out of that job at Crest. I mean, this is a big deal, James. This is a big fucking deal. Do you know why DRock's following me right now? Because I want to show everybody that I work 18 goddamn hours a day. So by the way, just to mention just what you refer to. So DRock works with you. He videotapes you from morning to night. Yes. And then you put that out every day? No, we thought we were going to, which is why it's called Daily V. And even though DRock is the hardest court hustler and we'll go edit at 2 in the morning, we just can't.

25:41We're just a two-band show and really most of the work is on him. But we're putting out two or three times a week. Now, is there a danger of burnout? Maybe for DRock, but not for me. You mentioned you work 19 hours a day, five days a week or six days a week. There is a danger. Nothing over the last 20, let's see, 40. nothing over the last 28 years has indicated it and one of the biggest reasons i got really healthy was a heart attack at 42 or you know that kind of scare could have been the prerequisite for me to do that so i'm really focused on my health i'm unbelievably mentally happy um i communicate what does that mean um if nothing good happens for me financially or notoriety starting right now ever again, if this is my apex, this is it.

26:29This is the biggest and best financial and brand and awareness and notoriety and admiration that I ever have. I'm unbelievably okay with it. Equally, I think I'm a piece of crap and I've got enormous places to go. Why do you think you're a piece of crap? Because I'm hungry. Because I feel like there's so much more in me. Because I think I'm all time. I really do. Okay. So now, so back to the - This is getting dark. But it's true. It's true. We'll get to that. We'll get to that because you - This is why you're such a soothing character. You get the real stuff out of me. But you could be hungry without feeling like a piece of crap also.

27:02Do you think - Well, it drives me. Do you think pesky or anxiety drives someone? I think I sabotage myself and come off real hard because I like being doubted. I like that there's 15 % of the people listening right now that aren't liking me right now in this interview, that I'm coming at it too hard. I like that. I'm intrigued by that because I like to earn them back. I love the climb. I love the journey. I love losing. You should see my face after we lose pickup basketball games when I play with my homies and my employees every morning. It's such a high because I know we get to play the next one and I'm ready.

27:33Like I love it. I love climbing the mountain. The journey is so much more rewarding to me than the actual. My wife has a funny joke with me. When we land, land, like, you know, like the plane lands and bounces a little bit in like a trip when it's just the two of us, a vacation, right? I look at her and I go, that's a sour face, everybody. Because the second the vacation starts is the second I don't like it as much. I like the week before. I live for the anticipation. I'm quite – like I like flirting more than hooking up. Like I love the chase. I love the game. So, okay. So let's get back to the woman or the man sitting in the cubicle.

28:14Yes. They eliminate House of Cards. Johnny Crest. Yeah, Johnny Crest. He eliminates house of cards, eliminates a softball game. He's ready to go. What's next? Self-awareness. And it's why, as you see on the cover, one entrepreneur's take on leadership, social media, and self-awareness. And a lot of other words, but self-awareness bubbled up to the core title. I believe that self-awareness is the single best number one attribute anyone could ever be gifted with. Better than being good looking. Better than being super smart. self-awareness. What does that entail though? Because people don't really know if they're self-aware or not.

28:52Yeah. The truth is this is kind of a constant journey. It's funny. And it's kind of where I cut off. I talk emphatically and with enormous bravado of the things I understand and I hedge and punt things I don't understand. I'm very comfortable in admitting that I don't know the science behind self-awareness. I don't know the anthropology or psychology around it. I don't know it's the thing, right? I just know it's the absolute thing. When you know what you're good at and what you're bad at, if, you know, James, I think, you know, your self-deprecation to me, the way you roll from afar indicates enormous self-awareness.

29:29When you understand yourself, you're able to navigate the world. But let me ask you a question. So a lot, a lot of these things, awareness are kind of, okay, what am I good at? What am I bad at? What do I want out of life? But there, could there be a deeper level in the sense that like you, write up constantly about how, okay, I want a long-term, and I'm patient for this, you said this, I'm patient for this, I want to buy the New York Jets. You say that everywhere. So now, could self-awareness be, hey, even if I don't buy the New York Jets, I'm still going to be happy? Or could you be setting yourself up for a long-term fall and disappointment by being too aware of the fact that you want to buy the Jets?

30:04So I think the Jets... Could you change goals to be more self-aware? I know that what drives me professionally and as an entrepreneur is the journey of buying the New York Jets. If I buy the New York Jets or not, not only – even if I amass the$10 billion of net worth to be able to do it, I might not pull it off. Woody Johnson may sell it to somebody else. When and if he passes away and I'm old and ready to do it, his family may do something else with it. I don't know. To me, I really want it. I'm focused on it. My behavior is predicated on it. I sold a piece of VaynerMedia to Steven Ross, the owner of the Dolphins, because it got me into the football family.

30:44I'm making decisions because of it. I know what my North Star is, but I won't be crippled if I don't pull it off because I'm self-aware enough to know there's so many other variables that will be part of the equation. So do you think goal setting is good as a driving force? It is for me. And I'm self-aware enough to know that it is for me. I'm self-aware enough to know that I want to work hard for something big I'm self-aware enough to know that I like losing so if I don't pull it off, that will be what I talk about so again, Johnny Crest, how does he become more self-aware? is it like an assessment?

31:20the only thing I figured out, I'm sure there's people that want to sell people on their assessments I don't know, the one thing I do think has worked and I've talked about this and I've gotten emails that it has worked is my only hack on this is to do some sort of crazy Zen retreat where, and you know, if that goes somewhere, this is actually a weird conversation. You round up the eight people that are closest to you. So Johnny crest goes to his work wife and what a work wife is for people that don't work in corporate America is Johnny crest. When he was an intern came in with Susan crest and they were just fresh out of school and they were friends and they've been working at crest together for 15 years and they're just friends and their work husband and wife, right?

31:59I would go to her. I would go to his actual wife. I would go to his grandparents, his mother, his single best friend from third grade, his fraternity brother, and I would get them all together and I would have a two hour conversation. And the first hour and a half is completely predicated on Johnny Crest saying to his mom or to his best friend, Hey, I'm ready for a life change. I need something from you. And it's going to be very hard on you. I want you to tell me everything you think that I'm good at and what you think I'm bad at. And the truth is, I don't think you're going to tell me the truth because you love me.

32:33And so you're going to hedge. So I'm giving you permission now to say things that you think may end our friendship or our relationship because in this one moment, I'll be okay with it because I'm using the data to make my life happier. And even though my feelings will be hurt when you say I'm lazy or I'm not that talented or I'm awkward socially, it's okay because this is the one moment in time where I need it. So you spend an hour and a half and it may take you longer. It might take you months to actually get that person into that safe zone. And then you leave 30 minutes if you get there fast for any questions.

33:05And then you do the assessment and you take the data from these eight to 10 people. And you finally, for the first time in your life, Johnny crest decide you don't live life hoping and wishing you were something you start for the first time in your life actually deciding what you are and navigating around that so so okay so johnny chris does this and people tell him oh you've you've you've played it safe for too long that's a good one you have too much you you know you watch how binge watch house of cards you go out late at night on thursdays whatever so now he starts to change he's like okay they're right i I want to do bigger and better things in my life.

33:44What's next? What's the next practical step? Because that's a good practical step. Well, I actually think the next practical step is pretty interesting. I think that at that point, Johnny Crest wants to decide if he wants to go for it or not. Because I actually think eight out of ten times, Johnny Crest, after that process, takes a step back and says, you know what? I like getting drunk with my buddies on Thursday night. I like House of Cards. I think it's kind of cool. and he may then realize, huh, I'm actually okay. Like, yeah, I'm not going to be Mark Zuckerberg. But let's say he's not. Okay, well then he's not.

34:15Then he decides what I think, back to crush it, he tries to build a business around something he loves because if he does that, it won't be work. And how do you find, and you address this a little in the book, but how do you find, most people don't know what they love. They do. They're confused. That's not true. You knew, you had a great sense. Wine, jazz, family. I understand, but I didn't love wine. I loved entrepreneurship. shit my parents had a liquor store i backed into it johnny's now 38 did we make him 38 let's make him 38 johnny's now 38 and johnny watches nascar every weekend johnny does mixed martial art like johnny has to look at what he does when he's not working and build a business around that let's say he watches house of cards every weekend so he does other things i don't think that's a good one okay but but it could be by the way if that is it maybe he becomes a social commentator on television in a 2017 world.

35:05Maybe what Johnny does is becomes the modern-day Siskel and Ebert for television and makes 89 ,000. Let's say Johnny, 15 years at Crest, let's say Johnny makes$213 ,000 a year, right? Like, what he has to do is decide that is he willing to make$87 ,000 a year but be a shitload happier and downsize his home or not go on as many vacations. These are choices, my man. You know, it's funny because it reminds me of, and you might know this guy because he's involved with sports and football, But Matt Berry, who's the fantasy sports guy on ESPN. Good friend. I am familiar. Yeah, he was a great screenwriter but gave it all up to basically blog for like$100 a post on fantasy sports.

35:44And now he's the ESPN sports commentator. Yes. So that's a good example. By the way, there's a lot of – And there were no fantasy sports bloggers then at all. And James, there's so many people that didn't make it as big as him. This is back to the$400 ,000 club. Do you know how many people email me every day from Crush It and say, I read it, it inspired me, and now I have a pottery business that makes$88K. $88K, James. Here's the punchline. They were making$75K. Let me phrase. I'll give you a different one. They were making$100K, but they're home every day. They see their kids. They've lost 20 pounds.

36:19They're happy. If they want to take a four-day vacation, they can. We have to get – let me stay here. I'm sorry. because I got to get this off. I was about to interrupt you. I know you are. We're going to let you stay there. And this is a big one for me, man. We have to reprogram, rebrand, and relook at entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is freedom. It doesn't mean making a million dollars. It means freedom. Doing what you want to do when you want to do it is much more valuable than giving up$30 ,000 because you can't buy a bigger TV.

37:25Transcription by CastingWords handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babbel is like having a private tutor in your pocket. Start speaking with Babbel today. Get up to 55 % off your Babbel subscription right now at babbel.com slash wandery, spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com slash wandery. Rules and restrictions may apply. So this is a great point because you talk in the book of this very powerful metaphor uh you're you know spend time in the clouds and spend time in the dirt so the clouds is kind of the the big picture and that's related to the self-awareness what do i want to do what are the overall broad ways the blueprint right like the religion the way up there and the dirt is in the weeds executing being a practitioner so now we're going to get into the into the dirt of this question okay you're johnny crest yes you've you've changed your blueprint you've listened to everybody and and you found what you love ufc you You want to win.

38:23Let's use UFC. You want to win in UFC. Okay, you want to win in the UFC. But actually, I want to use a different one. Okay, go ahead. I want to use the Jets. Okay. So let's say someone just loves the Jets. Let's do it. Okay, because you haven't done this. No, I have not. Now, I love the Jets. It's the only thing I love. Absolutely. Let me give you some crazy practitioner advice. Okay. This is going to blow your mind. You're going to be blown away by what I'm about to say. Okay, good. Do you know this? Do you know that if you buy stuff on eBay and resell it on Amazon, that there's a VIG right now in the marketplace supply and demand curve and you could probably make$50 ,000 a year just buying and selling jet stuff from eBay and then reposting it on Amazon.

39:01I did not know that. Cool, there you go. For everybody who's listening, I literally, if you're willing to work 18 hours a day on this, which means you're sitting on your computer, your phone, and you're following things on eBay and you're buying them and then they ship to you or you repost them and you ship it there and use the Amazon marketplace and you resell them on a VIG, I bought this Jets jersey for$18. I list it for$24.99 on Amazon. And how will you drive? How will people find you're just searching? Just Amazon search? Supply and demand of attention. The number one thing I live on. And let's say.

39:32But stick with me how wild this is. I just literally, and this is just straight up true. And you'll see comments in social that this is true. This is true. That if you want to do this for 18 hours a day. And by the way, everybody's listening right now. We've got some people hanging out out there and they're smiling. It's interesting, right? If you really love rock and roll, isn't it fun to just listen to rock and roll, go on eBay, buy rock and roll memorabilia and t-shirts and buy it and then repost it on Amazon and make$10 profit? And today you made$90, tomorrow you made$400, and you're going to get better at it.

40:05You're going to get better at it. I literally just gave everybody an absolute real-life blueprint on an arbitrage that exists in our society in America right now that is probably a minimum if you really work 18 hours a day. a$40 ,000,$35 ,000, even if you're kind of average,$35 ,000 profit business. Now, for a lot of people, that's not enough, but that's year one. I think by year two or three, most people listening right now, if they're talented, especially if they're a little bit of a marketer, if they really understand the Jets or really understand Rolling Stones or really understand UFC or really understand Pokemon, that they will really be able to get to$100 ,000 in profit by year three.

40:43Well, let's talk about – again, you say in your path to career success is learn and then content marketing. So it's not just – Correct. Not just doing the eBay, Amazon arbitrage. Well, because you're smart. Because you're smart. Then start blogging. Are you kidding? Of course. Right. Of course. Now you're getting paid$5 ,000 to show up at Pokemon Con. Now you're writing a guide on Pokemon. Now you're selling T-shirts. And you should keep pointing people to your Amazon seller's page. You got it, man. As opposed to the eBay page where it's being sold. You got it, man. Now, putting yourself out of business, let's go through Johnny Crest's career.

41:15He listened to The James Show. He couldn't believe it. He did it. Holy crap, he meals both of us in three years. He goes, you guys, you guys are, I'm going to buy 100 copies of both of your upcoming seventh books because you're a podcast, James, and Gary, you're advice. You did it. And then the arbitrage closes between eBay and Amazon. Right. Then everybody listened to this podcast and everybody's doing it. Right. And the market breaks. that's putting yourself out of business. That's recognizing in year two when you're making$64 ,000 and you're super happy that you need to start blogging and start a podcast or start Pokemon Con and be in event marketing because you're going to become vulnerable to that being the only revenue stream.

41:55Well, look at your own example where content marketing, again, on the Wine Library actually led to other opportunities for you. Not only led to VaynerMedia, but then VaynerMedia led to other opportunities, which is all the investments you've made based on contacts you've had through VaynerMedia. So it seems like you're always leveraging the thing you're doing to the next thing. Because I'm scared. I'm practical. I don't want to. And this is what. Listen, the only advice I've ever given in my life. James, I'm super undereducated. I was a DNF student in high school. I've read like four fucking books.

42:23I went to Mount fucking Ida College. Like I'm not an educated man. I'm very emotionally educated. And the only advice I ever give is predicated on things I've already done. I only give advice based on my reality. Well, it's funny because then, so after the content marketing for you, and this is what you mentioned in your first book, Crush It, but you also bring it straight up through this book, Ask Gary V, is community, the importance of community. And you have, I think you have extra energy. It's one thing to write every day or make a YouTube video every day, but then you take that next step, which is responding to the people in your community every day.

42:57And how, what big, what percentage of that is important for, you know, building the business and the brand and so on? For me, it was very big. It's what I had. I had time in 2009 and 10 and 11. I used it to my advantage and I also day trade attention. What does day trading attention means? It means you're always looking for the white space. So in a world where there was all these other experts that had been business experts before me, when Twitter came along, I knew that I was willing to interact with people and they weren't. And what's been crazy is as my brand has ascended and as I've gotten bigger, I still do it because I think it's the white space.

43:34I think most people don't interact. I don't understand what does white space mean. White space I refer to in business terms means what's everybody else doing that nobody's doing? Do that thing that nobody's doing if you believe it's valuable. I believe that it was valuable for me to say hi to Dale Cruz and say hi to Lorenzo and to Johnny Thompson. I thought that was valuable. That made a bigger connection with us that led to success. And by the way, I'm never upset when I put out 190 shows of Ask Gary Vee for free, right? Put out Daily Vee for free, answer questions for free, do all my content for free.

44:12And then I've done all these things for Ricky McGee. And then when the book comes out and I ask and they buy zero copies, it doesn't even bother me. This is where people struggle. One of the things that I think that people misunderstand with the jab, jab, jab, right hook philosophy give give give and then ask most people think it's give give give and then take got it ask well i remember um it's funny because i remember the night the thank you economy came out or i think you know your book yes there was your second book or third book um third book after the wine yeah you got it good job james following the narrative i remember you were on twitter and you were constantly asking people to buy yes like directly addressing each person yes and then you were even like meta commenting like do you guys see what's happening because you were like addressing the amazon rank uh you know it was like all night you were at it so that was your ask after like all the content i'm very comfortable going in for the right hook i'm a businessman like i'm very comfortable asking for the business i'm very comfortable i'm very comfortable reach out to you and say hey i'd love to be on the show i also know that i've been on the show like you would be stunned what would have happened if you're like hey man like i don't know like you you weren't on that long ago, I'd be like, yeah, I get it.

45:22Like that's like, that's your, like nothing phase. I'm such a believer in the market is the market is the market, even at my own expense that I don't have the gene inside of me of being upset when somebody lets me down or doesn't do a favor or I did so much for them and then they didn't do a little, I mean, there's somebody right now that popped to mind. I literally got them into a huge investment. They made millions of dollars, millions, James. I've got that. I helped them get a CFO. I helped, literally helped a relative get a job. Like the person's been asking, man. I asked for the book here.

45:58I don't know, seven copies. I mean like, you know, strangers are buying 25. I bought a hundred. We're giving away a hundred. I've done for this person a hundred times more stuff than I've done for you. I mean, so like, but, but am I crippled? I'm not, it's stunning how that navigates through my mind. What it does is I want to do right by you because of your good. I'm not capable of quantifying negatives. I brush off my losses. I don't even give them the respect they deserve. I hate negative energy. The reason culture is very good at VaynerMedia is I'm crippled by negative energy. If somebody - So how do you get rid of negative energy?

46:33I fire it. And then if somebody - As soon as you see it or do you get the - No, I've got to be calculated. Sometimes it takes six months. Sometimes it takes a year. It depends on what piece it is in the puzzle. There's much bigger macro kind of dynamics involved in the decision-making. But when I decide that it's negative, At that moment, it's done. It may take a year for it to manifest itself with friends, with business opportunities, with founders that I don't like the way they're navigating me or other board members. Once I decide it's over, I may take my time. I'm not the person like my dad that would confront you right in your face and go, you're a fucked face.

47:05I'm out of here and get up and leave. And that's the end of the relationship. That's not my tact. I guess for me, I don't quite do either. I just sort of eliminate and never talk to them again. I don't confront and I don't take my time. You know what's funny? I used to be that way too. There was a girlfriend that I broke up with that I literally hid in the closet of my dorm room because I didn't want to deal with confrontation. I've matured. I need to mature. I've matured in my ability to deal with confrontation. And I would tell you my little brother helped me with that. I think AJ has a good tact.

47:33And that rubbed off on me over the last seven years. I think there's some general just growing up that happened. And I finally stopped being egotistical. Here's what I mean by that. I used to think that they were better off staying in my ecosystem. them versus the alternative. And I realized me not believing in them was even though maybe I thought they were better off with me because I didn't believe in them. And I thought in the real world, they'd get eaten up. The truth is once I made that decision, there was nothing good for them to be in my world either. And so I've come to learn that too.

48:02So I want to get into the, into the dirt a little more as just a final, a final approach here. So, so Johnny Crest loves the Jets, makes content about the Jets, does this eBay. Are you going to, real quick, before you go there, are you going to put the title of the show going to be like gary v and johnny crest it could be it might be johnny crest so so so he's he's doing all the steps he's built the community he's doing the calls to action um now really in the dirt he wants to drive people directly to amazon and i used to know before you go there there's a couple things i want to add because sure because one of the things that i love that you're doing and this is why it's so fun to go on these tours you go on so many you're always scared that you're going to say the same thing because you know so many people are listening to all seven of these podcasts, you're doing such a great thing for everybody in your audience right now because we're getting very practical.

48:48Very practical. And I love it. So let's talk about a couple of things. We talked about the eBay thing. There's a couple of things that I want Johnny Crest to do in parallel. I want him to create his Twitter account. Twitter, even though it's struggling, and it is, still has a big advantage over every other platform. Johnny Crest can absolutely type in Pokemon or Rock and Roll or UFC in Twitter search and see other people talking about it. And I want him to engage with those people. I also want him to tweet at Dana White and the creator of Pokemon and Pikachu girl 47. That's the number one influencer on Twitter and start creating these relationships on social because it's part of the narrative.

49:24So cool. I just wanted to give another practical advice. Twitter search, searching people and engage Twitter search Instagram. No, because people are not reading their Instagram comments. If somebody is engaging in Twitter, they will see that you're reaching out to them. Now, Pikachu girl 47 may say I'm not talking to Johnny Crest. but if you do it 12 times, sometimes they'll think you're a creeper but once in a while they'll start, you know, rewarding you on that tenacity and you start building relationships. And try to build in value. Don't hit up Pikachu 47 and say, hey, Pikachu 47, tell everybody about my Johnny Crest Amazon account.

49:55You know, try to build a relationship. Try to bring them value. When Pikachu, watch Pikachu 47 and when Pikachu girl 47 says that she needs something and you happen to be in that town, be like, I got you. Bring value first. Right. Well, okay. So now I think that's great advice. Totally in the weeds. And I don't even normally go this much in the weeds. No, I get it. It's too practical. But you know you're here with a real fucking practitioner. But if things are too specific, they're not as evergreen. They might not last like a year from now. So I have stuff on Amazon. Yes. You have to do nothing.

50:28You have to do nothing. That advice I gave, you have to do nothing. I know what you're doing right now and you're right. Normally you have to figure out how to throw the right hook and what are the tactics. Ironically, the reason I gave everybody my best piece of advice for the quickest$1 ,000,$100 ,000 a year that you can make is Amazon's so big and search is so efficient on Amazon that you will just fucking win. So you don't have to buy ads directing people to Amazon? I would. I would buy Amazon ads within Amazon. But I'm also worried. Would you buy Facebook ads? Yes, I would. Would you recommend Facebook ads?

50:54Facebook or Amazon? No. In the execution that we just talked about, I would buy Amazon ads for Amazon within Amazon. But I will say this. The reason I'm not talking about ads is I want to be really practical. We're talking about Johnny Crest. Johnny went from making$200 ,000 a year, he's got a little bit of savings, and he's taking the sleep of faith because fucking James and Gary told him to, and I'm scared, and I want him to win. So I don't want him to do anything other than spend 18 hours a day trading, buying stuff and selling stuff. By the way, he also on Saturday can take his, you know, he used to on Saturday have to make a deck for the big presentation to Walmart on Monday.

51:27Now he can take Ricky, Ricky Crest. Ricky Crest is six years old, hasn't seen dad that much because dad's trying to win the corporate gig. and he's taking Ricky Quest garage sale because now he understands the market and he doesn't have to pay the VIG on Amazon, on eBay, excuse me. He's now buying some Pokemon or UFC stuff for a quarter and a dollar and he spent a hundred bucks, spent seven hours with his kid and made a$8 ,000 or$800 or$190 arbitrage on that day.

52:12so this is all great advice and it's and obviously you gave one specific example that's ebay amazon i'm sure there's many other types of businesses and so on you address there are you listen there's a let me give you some quick ones because i think you did a good thing here too i know people that became the mustard personality and are doing well and now mustards are supporting them right how are they selling mustard uh they became the mustard guy right They were talking about mustard a whole lot and eventually Mustard's reached out to him and say, hey, we'll give you free mustard. And that was cool at first because it was just this and that.

52:39And now Mustard's pay him$5 ,000 a month to be their consultant on social media around mustard and then other Mustard's pay him for product placement. That's how. Okay. All right. So look, just to end this because I think Ask Gary Vee is a great book. You've given great advice in this. You've been giving great advice on this podcast. I literally want to ask a stupid question, which is when's the last time you cried? because you seem like so motivational and inspirational. You're doing all these great things. When's the last time you took a step back and said, oh my God, I'm sad about something because it almost seems like you're on a hyper drive.

53:13The last four or five times I've cried in my life, I've basically, the last five times I've cried in my life have been on the passing of Lizzie's two grandmas, my uncle. I've only cried at funerals. the last time I cried about something besides a funeral and I'm really kind of going through my Rolodex here because I want to answer a true question I cried very hard in 1998, September of 1998 when Garrison Hurst broke off a 99-yard run touchdown against the Jets in overtime and the Jets lost a heartbreaker in the opening game against the 49ers and I cried so hard you couldn't even imagine What about in a business context?

53:55Let's say if someone screwed you over The biggest thing that ever got me close to crying was - Or anger. Anger a lot. I'm angry all the time. I'm angry every day. I'm angry at every employee that works for me right now at VaynerMedia that doesn't get how great it is of what we're doing and they think that something is bad. I used to get very emotional and struggled quite a bit with when states would shut down Wine Library from shipping. That would happen back in the day as those laws were getting figured out and that would be tough. Texas, you mentioned in the book. Texas in the book. So that's tough, right?

54:24That made me go to sleep early. When Texas shut down, I went to sleep at 5 p.m. I drove home. I believe that I'm the leader. And I believe that when you're the leader, you need to absorb all the pressure at your level. And you can't let it trickle down to anybody below you. And so very rarely in business do I ever feel overwhelmed. But that day I did. Because, you know, it's just tough to lose$3 million overnight. Like, it's just tough. And I was just sick of it. I was done, right? And so I went home because I didn't want anybody at Wine Library to see my being upset. And then how do you bounce back from that?

54:59I slept and I woke up and I was ready to go. That's just really what happened. So final thing. You mentioned you don't read a lot of books, but obviously you have a lot of knowledge about all different aspects of business. What are your sources of information? Like what are five sources people should check out? But you have the ability to just call up anybody. You call up Jack Welch and he comes on your podcast. Yes, but that's not what I do. I'm sorry I don't mean hit up Jack Dorsey or hit up you know Evan Spiegel or these kind of things two guys I don't know super well just for context you know I mean I watch people I mean when I go to the airport tomorrow to go to St.

55:34Louis I will spend my 30 minutes before I get on the plane A watching what people are saying on every social network and B watching what everybody's doing while they're sitting there I mean like what's an example where watching what someone was doing Snapchat I was early on Snapchat because I noticed that young kids were on Snapchat long before tech started writing about it. Like, as a matter of fact, I actually think I'm going to go to jail one day. I actually almost, actually, I had my first encounter. I had a father think that I was being super inappropriate with his 14-year-old daughter because I was like checking out what she was doing on the phone and I guess he thought I was checking her out.

56:07I thought I was some sicko. Probably you were a little bit of both. No, no, I wasn't. I swear to God. I swear to God. If she was 20, but not 14. And so, you know, so I watch people's behavior. That is my number one, That's what I do for a living. I do that a lot. I watch it very seriously. Well, Gary, thanks so much for all this advice. I'll give you another one. I want to do some more. Always check out the Apple App Store's top 140 free apps ranking because you'll see things emerging like musically right now. Like most people who are listening don't know what musically is, but it's a social network that's emerging and it shows it on the ranks.

56:42And then the other – What would you do with that information? I would download musically. I would look at what people are doing there. I would learn. I'm a – I watch behavior. clouds. It's very up here, right? Like, Hey, 45 year old women at bars at night are now taking selfies. That's interesting. Cause that was only 13 year old girls five seconds ago. I need to dig into this data that I put my analysts or people of that. I'm like, get me some data on this. Like I start really, I have intuitions that I use my teammates to form stronger, more rounded opinions. Um, so the app store is very important to me.

57:14I also think there's things like Jason Hirshhorn's email list, right? Media ref and, and there's product hunt and there's tech meme and there's nuzzle. I think there's some nice apps out there that can help people curate content. And then there's the people like you who are putting together some of the best business podcasts in the world. And what guests are you bringing on? And that's information for people. This is not how I consume information. I consume it through watching people, but I know 99 % of people do consume information. Well, Gary, thanks so much. I do think people should consume more information through hashtag AskGaryVee.

57:46I'm serious, though. I want this from you. I'm curious. And I feel like you have a very good read on me. We know each other very well. It's your second visit on the podcast. We've known each other a while. We've been in some of the same deals together. That's exactly right. Is there anything from this book that, was there anything, uh-huh, or oh, I'm glad? Like, what was the outlier of the book, if anything? And if there's nothing, that's fine, too. I'm just curious for myself with your North Star, what happened in this book that I can use to learn from? I think two things. I think the clouds versus dirt metaphor was very important.

58:18I don't think most people realize that. I think it's a good model to think about starting a business. I think the pathway, which I kind of had to put together from the book as opposed to being outlined, the pathway of learning, content, community, call to action is very important. I think that's a headline of the book. And I think being very serious about how you approach sincerity and authenticity in your content marketing. Too many people focus on the marketing and not the content part of that equation. So I think that's very important. Also the fact that seeing – and again, this is a meta comment – seeing you in action in the book, how you're able to easily answer this wide variety of questions.

59:01that comes from knowledge and experience and people should learn from that aspect as well. That last part's important to me. Guys, for everybody who's listening, there's very few people that are winning at a very high level that don't have a skill set that not only that either came natural and they worked on or they just worked on and maximized their thing in that world. We're just not patient and we're really impatient in America and we've become stunningly impatient at the 20-year-old level, 20 - to 35-year-old level around entrepreneurship. I think those people see so many 22-year-olds making a billion dollars getting bought by Facebook.

59:41They don't. There's only three of them. There's Instagram. There's Snapchat. There's Uber. There's 900 ,000 other people that are about to go out of business, be in debt, have a bad reputation for not being somebody who can build a business, burn bridges. We're not talking about the other thing. I'm going to get a little bit deeper to close it. one of the reasons I want to get all this more grounded and practicality and hope that I can be as a personality in the space, get others to start talking about this. We are not talking about depression and suicide and other very important issues in entrepreneurship because these kids are getting told it's so easy and everybody can do it.

1:00:13And then they think they're losers. And it's important, man. Like 99 % of these businesses are not going to succeed. Well, even look at yours and my track record of investing. you know most businesses just don't work out you could be an expert in every way i thought yo bongo was going to be the biggest app of all time well and also let's look at the sin of a mission you and i both didn't invest in uber that's right i invested in the next round i talk about let's talk about you i'll go further than that i acknowledge travis and crush it two years before uber the only person in the world that i acknowledged in my book besides my family my first business book was the CEO of Uber.

1:00:54And I passed on Uber twice in the angel round, leaving$200 million on a table. But you know, so like, look, I want people to understand that if you make$180 ,000 a year in your business selling t-shirts off of your Instagram account, you are really doing a nice job. As a matter of fact, I'm going to go to my calculator, James, here as you, why don't you come up with something clever to say right now? Cause I really want to look this up. How do you sell$180 ,000 worth of t-shirts on Instagram? Real quick, very easily. You can put a link in. Ready? Here's where you buy them. If you sell$180 ,000 a year, you're in the top 6%.

1:01:26Like, do you know how special that is? You know, you create a meme kind of Instagram account. You caught paydirt. You were on Instagram a little bit early. You know, fuck Jerry gave you a shout out or something. You got like 100 ,000 people following you. You've been hacking. You've been smart about putting out content with 25 hashtags because hashtags is the practitioner way to be discovered inside of Instagram. You had a viral post that got you going. your buddy's dating a model and she gave you a shout out and she had 80 ,000 followers and you got a little bit of a, and now you have a little base and you went to TeePublic and created a t-shirt around it and you posted something on Instagram and 87 people bought it and it started your journey.

1:02:02That's how. Alright, good. You've given us so many different business models. We've talked about everything. So Gary, everybody go out and buy hashtag AskGaryVee. We're giving away 100 copies. We'll give you information on how to get it. There's one final thing, James. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just, I just like you so much. I don't want to leave. I want to talk to you about your Snapchat. All right. Tell me. Cause I don't use Snapchat. That's what I want to fucking talk to you about. Okay. You out of all the people I know in this ecosystem have a chance to break out on Snapchat. What should I do?

1:02:32Sign up. I should sign up first. Sign up first. That's a very important first step. By the way, the only thing I probably don't use cause I use everything else. And you know, what's funny for me from afar looking at the ecosystem, cause this is what I do. I actually think you would crush I think you would absolutely annihilate it I think that you just you just put you know it's such a good medium for you because the way I view you from afar you know you're at meetings you just take a little shot you take a picture follow a bunch of people watch what they're doing I have a funny feeling that you would be a very very strong content producer around Snapchat and here's the punchline in 24 to 36 months an ungodly amount of the attention of the end consumer in America will be on it and you need to be there.

1:03:11All right. I'm going to do it. I'm going to take your advice. You know what? Now I'm going to guilt you into it. I'm going to take, this snap is going to be like you admitting, James, can you please admit that you are now going to join Snapchat? I've totally failed in not having a Snapchat account. I'm going to join it. When? Today. That's the right fucking answer.

1:03:39Thank you.