- There's nothing that beats passion.
Nothing.
'Cause what passion does is create energy.
What energy creates is a lot of output
in a short period of time.
(yells)
You got your perspective.
I just want to be happy, don't you want to be happy?
(digital rock music)
Good morning, how are you guys?
I'm an entrepreneur I run a 900 person advertising
and publishing agency that is global based in the US.
In a world where people are trying to eliminate adversity
and we all have to be happy,
it actually ends up that everybody's upset
because in real life,
every day there's something that brings adversity
and so, I'm with you, I think eighth place trophies
and being your PR agent on social media's
leading to depression and anxiety and
mental health issues and I'm proud that I talk about
eating crow and crap
I still, you know, love the fact that I fly 30 hours
to Australia and then get right on stage and speak.
To me, the hustle and the grind of the process
is the payoff,
not the financial or things you buy with it,
and I think, unfortunately 99% are confused.
Thank you guys so much, I'm so humbled to be on the show.
- [Interviewer] Thanks, Gary.
- Thanks guys.
Hey it's Gary Vaynerchuk, how are you?
(laughs)
I really appreciate that,
thanks for having me on.
Well I think what's great about being an entrepreneur
for me is that I have nobody to answer to.
Right, I have a lot of empathy for you
if you worked in radio stations, things of that nature,
the truth is you have to bite your tongue,
even with my company, Vayner Media,
where we have clients the reality is,
there are times when I'm gonna bite my tongue
because the stakes are high.
But, God, it is such a better life
to actually speak your truth
and especially if it comes with good intent and kindness.
I do a thing that's worked for me is,
even though some of my content may seem
like I'm giving tough medicine,
it's coming from a place where I'm desperate
for that person to be happy or more successful.
Words of advice.
Go to a retirement home
and spend eight hours with 10 people that are in their 90s,
and deeply consume the regret in their eyes
for all the things they didn't do.
It will scare you straight into taking action.
Thank you guys, have a great day.
Just did two radio shows in Australia
really awesome,
there was some good clips in there, DRock.
Q and A's when I come out with my best stuff
and now we're on our way to Brisbane.
This trip has been going amazing.
Obviously super focused on the matchbox cars
and the pins, and trash talk
but also producing some incredible content
and getting some really good time with DRock
because we haven't had it,
so that's been very nice.
I love you, bro.
(digital rock music)
If you haven't been paying attention
to my socials and specifically Instagram stories,
I've become unbelievably obsessed
with the flip life
so much so that I'm literally flying from New Zealand
connecting in Hawaii,
landing, showering
and immediately going garage selling, tomorrow.
(digital rock music)
About to take the stage in Brisbane,
Really feelin' it.
Felt really great in Sydney the other day,
and so trying to carry over that energy.
It's been a great content day.
Tomorrow, get up super early,
go to New Zealand,
destroy some Kiwi faces,
get on a plane,
connect in Hawaii,
land, go.
so my energy's up.
Nice winds at Vayner Media,
some exciting stuff
that you'll be hearing about in the future,
that's exciting.
(claps)
Good vibes.
Feeling good.
(digital music)
This Jamaican Bobsled Pin is at $36.
One pin, Steve.
One pin, $36.
- [Steve] That hasn't (murmurs)
- I know but I'm still like
marveling in the excitement of it.
Oh Snuffaluffagus got a bit,
got a bit, bang.
Let's go.
Ooh, the Adidas went up to 14.
It was 12.50 last time we checked.
(audience cheers)
Thank you.
What up?
(audience cheers)
What up, Rizzy?
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Sit, sit, let's do it.
And so for me, accountability is the greatest
and most interesting thing.
I'm fascinated by people's ability to dwell
and complain.
It's unbelievably interesting.
Just so everybody understands,
the only people listening
to you dwell and complain,
are other fuckin' losers.
(audience laughs)
What I'm trying to accomplish here this afternoon
is to put pressure on the truth.
If we are not striving for happiness,
then we're not playing.
People are amassing products and goods that mean nothing.
People are trying to amass status
in front of others
that means nothing.
This is one humongous game of self-awareness
I desperately ask you, if you're motivated
to not necessarily just figure out
how to run LinkedIn Ads against a white paper
for your B2B financial service business,
or how to DM a hundred influencers every day of the week,
and ask them to post a picture with your product
and ask 'em how much they want,
then negotiate with them like it's a garage sale
and then see if it actually works.
I need you to understand what's happening out here.
And what's happening out here
is this is the greatest era of abundance.
If, you know, if you actually look
at somebody else's success
and you're angry about it
because you've been tricked into thinking
that comes out of your success, you do not understand life.
I put out my content for free
because your attention's more than enough.
I don't need to sell you anything else
because your attention is far more valuable to me
than your money.
You get attention,
by putting out good shit.
Do you know how many people here
want to grow their profiles
but have never replied to a comment
of somebody that's left a comment?
You haven't jumped in and said thank you
or replied to their question.
I looked at a bunch of you.
I saw the hashtags for these fucking questions.
Right, the fuckin' hashtag, AskGaryVee BRI.
I looked.
And when I looked at all your accounts,
99% of you do not reply to people's questions
in your Instagram portfolios.
While all you give a fuck about
is growing your Instagram portfolios.
How did I get here?
From 2007 to 2011, I went to sleep
at four o'clock in the morning every day.
Every day.
Because I did not go to sleep until I replied
to every tweet I had
and I was running a wine business for 11 hours
so I didn't have time to do it during the day.
This isn't luck shit, Johnny.
(audience laughs)
Who's named Johnny here?
(audience laughs)
This isn't luck shit, Johnny.
(audience laughs)
This is fuckin' putting in the work
and I'm just emploring you to use today,
this afternoon, this talk to be the starting point.
And that starting point in opportunity
is getting a clear mind so it's super quiet
and start putting out your fuckin' truth.
Put out your content.
What do you know?
What are you living through?
If you're just starting out,
document your journey of trying to figure it out.
Speak your fuckin' truth.
Speak it loud.
Speak it often.
Because you will regret not squeezing this era.
Live your life,
I love you,
thank you.
(audience cheers)
Thank you.
(upbeat digital music)
How many people are at this dinner?
- Ah, I don't.
- How many at this dinner?
- 11 or, 10 or 11?
- Hello guys.
- [Man] Hey!
- [Gary] Hello.
How are you?
If you look about, around,
this is really fun.
There's a lot of businesses here that are B2B, you know.
We started with a very B2C, very trendy, sexy business
but the majority of the businesses here, quite B2B.
But the reality is,
is that what's amazing about boring B2B businesses
and Vayner Media and what we do,
is B2B, it's not, you know,
it might be a little more creative, but
is that you know who you're targeting.
- Yeah. - So,
thank you.
So I think that
one of the things to talk about is,
I actually think you could be,
a lot of you, looking around, could remarkably change
the outcome of your business
through Facebook and LinkedIn and podcasting
and be outrageously boring.
The reason I always have the answer,
people ask me that, I'm like,
'cause I reverse engineer who the decision maker is,
and then I ask enough questions
to figure out what brings them value.
I mean, a government official is trying to get reelected,
or trying to build equity with the person
that they think is gonna get reelected.
Everybody's got,
it's like,
I love Star Wars because the first,
you know there's this thing called the Death Star,
it destroys everything, yet,
if you just ride a plane very carefully
through a very narrow place
and drop a little thing on this one little thing,
the whole thing breaks out.
Like, and it always stuck with me, like,
everything's reverse engineerable.
If you actually understand who the decision makers are
and then what do they need.
I'm a high growth entrepreneur
because I don't value short term economics.
- Okay. - So step number one,
the biggest reason that I've been able
to build big businesses
is there's not a lot of 29 year old guys or gals
that spend 18 hours a day building a business
and are okay with taking home $63,000
while giving up their entire 20s.
Most people are reverse.
They make money and they take it out of the business
to buy themselves things.
- Ah ha. - I value my business
over myself.
- Yes. - So one,
I put all the money back in.
Number two, I'm an innovator.
So what innovators,
I'm a very good salesman, too,
even though I talk about branding,
so I'm good enough to stay alive
while my thing that's gonna really grow me, grows.
So I'm selling social media in 2009, '10, '11, '12,
just enough to stay alive,
but then in '14 when it becomes real
I'm the guy and it all comes.
You know it's a daily game.
Like what was yes...
Like,
I mean I can't wait, you know,
I say this lately a lot, with DRock,
I was like, I wish I was filming myself
back in the day 'cause I would talk about direct mail
and other things
and now I shit on,
outdoor media,
I used to run billboards all over New Jersey.
You know,
there's gonna be a day where I'm gonna make content
that's gonna be like,
"Why are you doing Instagram, that's stupid?"
(audience laughs)
You know?
And that's gonna be fun,
because then there'll be a full cycle of content,
to reference this era. - Yeah.
So I can show people I'm not about social media,
I'm about attention.
I think people are starting to understand
that once I started getting excited about voice.
That's when people were like,
"okay, this is a little bit different than just,
"he loves social media."
No, I run an email,
I have an email,
but I think email's an effective way to still sell.
I really do.
Um, just not as effective as it was 15 years ago.
- [Man] You just do everything.
- Do everything and then allocate energy and resources
based on the reality of everything.
So smoke signals is now zero.
(audience laughs)
Right?
But I'll still buy outdoor billboards
if, 'cause in Jersey,
and I don't know this market,
like,
a billboard that's $20,000 a month,
if they don't have it sold, with a day to go
could be $2,000.
And then I'm like, well, for a month, $2,000, okay.
You understand? - Yeah.
- And to me it's about
is attention over-priced or under-priced?
One thing I really don't love
about being one of the poster childs of all this
is I'm such a high energy, extroverted personality,
that it tricks people into thinking
that's what you need to be.
But it's not.
You need to know your craft.
You could be mundane and boring
if you're doing B2B and there's 37 people
that are your target, and they just want the information,
they just want the fuckin' information.
Plus, you don't have to make video.
You can do audio, you can write,
you can make a power point and post it on LinkedIn.
The other biggest thing that a lot of you won't do,
that you need to think about,
is give away your best information for free.
It's very counter intuitive.
Why would they hire me is,
I know you want to transition but like,
why would they hire me to be an accountant
if I teach them how to do it?
Because context.
Context is the value.
It's why this is valuable.
Like you can watch all my content,
then the stage will be a little more context
and this is gonna be real fuckin' context.
And, literally for you,
like I know I've answered, like,
- Yeah. - I've answered real stuff
and I can see like, oh okay, oh shit,
and it become like,
it's really valuable when you can like un,
it's not like, you know,
getting to the insight, unlocking the change of perspective,
is everything.
There's nothing that beats passion.
Nothing.
'Cause what passion does is create energy.
What energy creates is a lot of output
in a short period of time.
(upbeat digital music)
(audience cheers)
Thank you.
Just pick one.
Like cripple,
you have to figure out if it's insecurity,
that you like to put up a facade,
and you don't want to actually go on the field and prove it,
or is it just like indecisiveness
which is already a tell
that you might struggle running a business,
so you just have to pick one and go.
Period.
Get into the practice of it.
- Any words of wisdom for serial introverts
on how to leverage talent?
- It's really funny because I'm,
obviously extremely extroverted,
(audience laughs)
but so many of the people I most admire,
some of the best partners I've ever had,
employees, executors,
you know are unbelievably introverted.
As a matter of fact,
so many of the kids that I saw win in Silicon Valley,
as we know because they came really truly
from tech nerd culture,
were outrageously introverted.
I think just not dwelling on the fact
that you're not extroverted,
in what is now a me-me personal brand,
post everything on social media world,
I actually think it's an advantage
so for me, like, leveraging the talent is very easy.
It's all down to execution.
Let me promise you something.
For all my videos and cursing,
and charisma and energy,
if I didn't actually succeed in my executions,
I wouldn't mean shit.
You know the biggest issue right now in society,
is that somehow we've created this narrative
that 18 or 22 or 30 year olds
need to have their shit figured out.
Most 57 year olds don't have their shit figured out.
(audience laughs)
And so the pressure that you have
to figure it out is ludicrous.
Of course you don't know what your passion is,
you haven't even fuckin' lived yet.
So my biggest advice is take advantage of this vacation,
right?
Navigate through it so they don't kick you out,
and take as many weird courses,
go to as many weird things,
like try shit.
Like you don't know if your favorite food is oysters
if you've never had one.
Here's the tactical thing that I'd like to talk about.
If you are not producing 100 pieces of content,
for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, podcast,
every single day,
you are leaving the greatest opportunity in the world,
on the table.
100. - 100?
100. - That's a shit load.
That's a fuck load.
(audience laughs)
Everything I've just said sounds hard as fuck
and tedious as shit, right?
But here's the secret.
Everything great should be hard.
(audience cheers)
New Zealand, I fuckin' love you!
(audience cheers)
I love you.
Thank you for having me.
(New Zealand Haka war dance)
(audience cheers) - Wow!
Fuckin' amazing.
That was amazing.
That's fuckin' amazing, guys.
That's fuckin' amazing,
amazing.
- We love you, Gary, we love you, Gary!
- That's amazing man, fuckin' amazing.
Thank you.
(audience cheers)
Fuck,
that gets me so,
I wanna fight somebody.
(audience laughs)
That's fuckin' amazing.
(upbeat digital music)
I give away all my best advice for free.
That's why you're here.
(laughs)
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- I'm like,
- Yeah, 100% yeah.
- This is,
Guys this dinner and this talk are not ROI positive for me.
They're just not.
- Could be garage selling. - That definitely isn't.
(laughs)
- [Man] On a scale it is.
If the measure is impact, right?
- Correct. - And the camera's rolling.
- Correct. - Right?
- Correct.
And the best part is
when you provide value with no expectation,
when they asked me, they're like,
"hey we want to do a dinner series."
I'm like, "cool,"
I'm like, "let's do it."
'Cause I want the content.
The money is great, I'm very,
It is a lot of money, but like,
my rev share of it is not what's driving me to be here
I'd rather go garage sale.
(laughs)
I want the content.
DRock will tell you,
I get more excited about buying a stuffed animal
for a dollar, that's $20 on eBay,
than closing a five million dollar deal.
(laughs)
What I'm really good at is this,
like it comes natural to me,
I don't look at yesterday at all,
which is what everybody does.
I really care about today.
And I'm very good, intuitively about tomorrow.
My religion is today.
My disrespect is for yesterday.
My curiosity's about tomorrow.
(upbeat digital music)