- I got lucky.
I hate the word luck but like, I'm living through a time
where entrepreneurship is cool.
In 1983, like Russell Simmons doesn't think like
the CEO of IBM is the fuckin' shit.
(hip-hop music)
- Ladies and gentleman we are back
with a very, very, very, very, very special guest.
I would argue to say your favorite entrepreneur's
favorite entrepreneur, Gary Vee.
- Thanks for having me.
- Welcome man, thanks for making this happen.
- That was a lot of very's.
I'm fired up.
- One thing that you wrote that I thought was really dope
was or said or something was,
everyone said you were the wine guy until you weren't.
- Yeah.
- What is everyone saying that you are now that you're not?
- I think 50% of the people in the world
think I'm a motivational speaker.
I think I will be one of the
most respected, liked entrepreneurs ever.
I'm not gonna make the most money, right?
Elon Musk and Zucks and Bezos and Meg Whitman,
there's tons of people that are you know,
gonna do it bigger.
What I think I'm gonna do is give back
more to the game.
You know, the people that are really in the billionaire
girls boys club, they're not in the trenches like I am.
They're not spitting fuckin' eBay flip tactics.
They're not doing podcasts 'cause they know
they're gonna reach different people.
They're not in it.
- When you started this,
did you have this grand plan or was it like
this just needs to be documented
and this whole thing kind of snowballed?
- Vayner was finally in a place where I was
ready to make content again because 2012-14
I was kind of head down.
D Rock hits me up, he's like, I wanna make a film for you.
I'm like, you know what?
Yeah cool, let's do it.
Makes a film, I really like it, I really like him,
he's a good kid, I'm like you know what?
Been dying to this Q&A show.
So I hired D Rock full time.
We started a YouTube show called the AskGaryVee Show
and it starts popping a little bit.
At the same token, Casey and others
have the vlog thing going first person.
- Oh Neistat.
- Right.
And D Rock's like you have to do this,
you have to do something.
I'm like dude, I'm not fuckin' walking around
with a camera in my hand and somewhere, somehow,
some moment I'm like, you should follow me around.
But then finally back to not giving a fuck,
I was like, I'm gonna be right and a lot of people
are gonna do this in two years.
I'm gonna get credit for starting a trend
that everybody's gonna do 'cause it makes sense.
It's a good idea.
It's not just a good idea for building your brand
and all that, it's a good idea 'cause
it's gonna be fun to look at when you're fuckin' old.
I see non-business value in vlogging.
- Yup, yup.
- I see personal family heritage shit, you know?
- You can tell there's a massive side of your life
that doesn't show.
- My family.
- Family, right?
Do you, is it like, you're working all day
but when the clock is up, it's time to go,
you wrap it up, you go home and you're just
father Gary, you're not--
- No, on the weekends and seven weeks vacation
but Monday through Friday, I'm getting home
at 11:30 at night.
There is no father Gary.
- So they just know they're waiting 'til the weekend?
- Yeah, we're playing an extreme game,
at least that's what it is now.
It works for me and my family,
it worked for my wife's family so it's a little bit
more native to us.
I'm sure for some people that's crazy.
I respect that, everybody should do it their way.
We made a family decision that like, you know,
my wife and kids like, we're gonna keep that separate
and you know it's already been hard because
I'm getting recognized so much more in public
when I'm with them.
But it's definitely, it's been very conscious.
- And that doesn't bother you like you're,
the one thing that kills me or get me is you're going to,
everywhere you go, you're doing meetups, you're doing like,
you, it seems like you genuinely love the energy,
the connection that you don't tired?
You don't get worn out of like,
man I just wanna go to the mall
with my family and not be recognized?
- No.
I can't get over the gratitude.
Like there's no tired or annoyed
or struggling with something that that person
doesn't know about that trumps the gratitude
of somebody being like, holy shit you're Gary Vee,
you gotta understand a very important thing about me.
My microfame, emerging fame,
comes not because I'm fuckin' hot,
not because I can spit bars,
not because I can put a ball in a hoop.
My fame is coming because I'm bringing people
emotional and mental value that then maybe,
maybe they act on which then makes their life better.
There is a different level of relationship
and it and I'm, it's nice.
- How do you get
to the billion dollar, multi-billion dollar Jets' owner?
I guess what I'm saying is--
- How am I planning on doing it?
- What do you do to take that to that level?
- I buy Prince the tennis racket business.
- Yup.
- I convert it into a sneaker and hoodie brand.
I run it through the Vayner and Gary Vee machine.
I buy it for $208 million because now
I'm building big businesses, I can afford it
and I sell it for $2.7 billion to Adidas
'cause they need the more contemporary brand.
I think what I did smart was I deployed
self-awareness eight years ago and said,
I have to build a machine that's the scalable version of me
so that when I buy SmartWater on the decline,
when I buy this shit, this thing
that I will become the CEO of,
so my executives at Vayner, somebody will become the CO
and then I will be the CEO of a business
that I buy for a couple hundred million
that I will sell for $2 billion
and I'll be off to the races.