- On this episode we executed the single best episode in
#AskGaryVee Show history.
The energy was just (groans).
Wait 'til you see how it ends.
(laughter)
(hip hop music)
- [Gary] You ask questions,
and I answer them.
This is The #AskGaryVee Show.
- Hey everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk and
this is episode 229 of The #AskGaryVee Show.
Five for five, we did it.
We fought for it, it almost got ruined with the last meeting
Garrett but I'm super pumped to bang out a five ep--,
you know what?
When I said Garrett can you edit it or whoever's editing it put a
little picture and run it in
real time when Garrett was on episode--
- [Garrett] 26. - [DRock] Wow.
- [India] That was one of my first episodes.
- That was, no, no. Really?
- Yeah.
- [Gary] Wait a minute, you and Garrett are
#AskGaryVee brother and sister.
- [India] I guess so. - Amazing.
Super excited, it's been a good week of shows.
Feel like fresh.
I think that's what happens sometimes and I think, you know,
I love the word cadence.
I think when you're doing it a lot you get into similar answers
and different things. I think it's opened up.
I've been really impressed by the tremendous answers,
just kidding.
I've been very happy though with the quality of the show and
I hope you have as well and your comments are absolutely oxygen
for so many of you that are starting to watch now the
engagement in the comments means a lot to me so thank you.
India, let's get into that show.
- First one from Ward.
- [Gary] Ward.
- Good morning, Gary.
This is Ward from London with one question.
How much of the success of being VaynerMedia do you think is down
to the brand GaryVee?
I think GaryVee might be the best content marketing strategy
in history so how much of the
success of VaynerMedia is down to that?
What if GaryVee the brand was not there and what if GaryVee
was just running VaynerMedia without producing any
GaryVee content out there?
So thank you. - That's a good question.
Ward, I think he answer is both.
I think I have the luxury of proof being in the pudding as a
22-year-old in a five year period, I grew a business from
3 to 65 million in the old world.
No capital, no real internet at scale and so I'm proud that if
Gary Vaynerchuk CEO not out in the ecosystem started
VaynerMedia seven years ago you know it would be successful and
the truth is of course it would be because really here's the
punchline Ward nobody in corporate America, Pepsi
Campbells, the NHL, none of
our earliest clients gave a shit about me.
You know what?
99% of my clients don't now.
Now, that would be naïve to not understand that over the half
decade that I've been really running the company, first two
years I was somewhat involved, sales, mentorship with AJ and
I was involved but I'm full
pledge is what I do for living now.
GaryVee is this is my side hustle, right.
I think that there's been benefits.
You know people walk in here.
I can think of a brand we just won that there's the truth is
it's because of the GaryVee stuff and so I think the
answer's both and I think that's what's really cool.
I think one day people will
realize how much I like to hedge.
I think of it as a hedge
like both matter they help each other.
One's there if the others not there.
It's kind of a little bit of immigrant in me.
For somebody who's so on the offense I've a lot of
conservativeness and practicality that is the
foundation of what I do and I think brings a lot of value to
a lot of people watching if they can get through the layers.
And so, the answer is both.
It's a really smart question.
I think many people have done both.
Plenty of people have done a lot of business on the back of their
brand when they entered it. Right?
Plenty of restaurants that are named after famous,
millions of things.
Just clothing lines, unlimited and many people are
just unknown assassins.
Met with a guy the other day
he's built two $400 million businesses.
Never heard of them in my entire life nor have you.
You can't even find anything about him and you know they have
the humility and the kind of personality that allows that.
And so everything works, not everything works for you.
Plenty of people built huge agencies not being known,
just operators and there's been
agencies built on the backbone of individuals.
P Diddy's agency is P Diddy and great people that he hired
underneath but it wouldn't have been there.
- [India] That makes sense.
- I'm really feeling strong.
I'm feeling great.
I feel like I'm really hitting a stride here.
A pre-prime of my career.
- [India] Wow.
- I couldn't go with prime because I got so much to go.
Pre-prime.
I like pre-prime.
- [Garrett] (inaudible).
- For you, you've got a lot baby.
Alright. Sorry.
- [India] It's ok. - Wyatt.
- Hey Gary, David and Wyatt here from Demio and we wanted to ask
you a quick question.
- Was it challenging for you to make the switch from selling to
consumers wine to selling in to
large businesses like Toyota or Mountain Dew?
- And if so how did you make the switch?
Thanks, Gary.
- It's been difficult because I like selling to consumers a
little bit more and I did that
and I'm selling to companies second.
So, like in a weird way even at the height of my career
financially, power, brand I'm doing something that is in the
short term, a decade, which is long-term for every one of you
watching which is one of the fundamental reasons I will win
more than most of you because the level of patience I have and
humility to put in the work is so much greater than you.
So in the short term, 10 years, I've decided to do something
I don't like as much because it builds the platform for them to
allow me to do something that I love the most and
so this is the path I decided.
Builds the best framework for me to go out and sell to consumers
again one day and I've enjoyed and learned to enjoy and found
different nuances and challenges in selling to B to B to big
companies but I definitely it's probably the reason I've been so
hot on the wine stuff lately.
You know during my vacation when I had a little downtime when
I was had some downtime when the kids and family went to go get
the fruit stand and my brain was getting crazy I wanted to do
some action I didn't go and like
hit up an executive to expand B to B work.
I started looking at what Wine Library was selling and try to
sell wine to people, right?
I still love the speed,
the speed in the day-to-day interaction.
As a matter of fact, when things are just thinking about for our
team is that I think I want to start a little shop.
I think we need to sell stuff.
I don't like just GaryVee t-shirts and stuff like that.
I actually mean like because that's like whatever.
I mean like something.
I think we should brainstorm,
come up with something and sell it.
- [DRock] That's be cool. - Yeah, I think so too.
Cool.
- [India] Actually this is not a video.
- Whoa.
(silence)
- Like a shop, like a shop. The shop has no shot.
- [India] I knew you were
gonna say that so I put in this question.
Just kidding.
So why is VaynerSports different?
- Because AJ's starting the foundation and I trust AJ.
What happens is you evolve is, and this is very much why
VaynerMedia is important.
The level of understanding that I have about the four people in
this room, DRock, India, Garrett and Dunk varies given how long
they've been around but boy is
that the reason I'm gonna be successful.
Where as in the past I tried to do business with other people
and they've been amazing and by the way for Kyle and Lindsay and
for all the other characters
I've jammed with it's been my fault.
I've overpromised and under-delivered.
Not happy for me, not excited but what I learned was I don't
have the bandwidth.
I thought I could do everything.
I can't do everything and so what you need to do is have
people that can do everything or a lot and allow me to do magic
on top of it and look Vaynermedia in
two years did 3 million.
I sold those clients but AJ knew how to farm it.
I can do the hunting and then when I decided to do everything,
3 to 100 happens in a heartbeat, right?
So I think that that's what I'm looking for and I'm trying
understand there's a lot of people now I trust in here.
I can open a lot of businesses but I want to know be smart
about this and things of
that nature and so that's the difference.
- [India] Cool.
Think his name is Randy.
- That's down to self-awareness and delegation but realizing
that you can't, when you're an entrepreneur you're the most
optimistic person on Earth.
You can't deploy that optimism against somebody else that's
driving and so what you need is context and to be able to
delegate to a known entity within your ecosystem.
Investing allows me to bet on things that I don't control.
I don't need to do that with my own businesses anymore.
Go ahead.
I can't hear this.
- [India] I think he has his finger.
- Here we go.
- Hey Gary.
Randy Solovski here coming from Pennsylvania and my question is
I want to interact with new and more positive minded people
using the power of social media
and how would I go about doing that?
Thank you so much, I love your show.
Hope I can hear what you have to say.
- This is great.
What was his name?
- [Dunk] Randy. - Randy. I heard it.
Randy, we're gonna do an experiment here and DRock by the
way I know Other Tyler.
Other Tyler!
Get in here.
There is a flaw.
Staphon doesn't edit anymore but you what, get Staphon too!
Staphon!
By the way Staphon's new haircut is legit.
- [Dunk] I love it.
- Staphon looks way better.
You do too.
Everybody's upgrading their hair game.
You look good man.
I'm proud of you. (laughter)
Even though you're not editing anymore I'm making
this statement because you made the flaw you've made the flaw
even and you love the think you're perfect, DRock.
Other Tyler you've made the flaw.
The amount of times of on this show that I've said link that
shit up and then we don't is unacceptable.
You're done with it so you can go back to your thing though you
might get called back in.
If I'm asking for something to be linked up,
it's gotta be linked up. Alright?
So cool, that's it.
So like right now when I link up what's his name again?
- [India] Randy.
- Randy, I'm gonna link up Randy.
We're gonna link his Twitter account in YouTube and Facebook
and I know some people different and copy, I get it.
We'll also flash his handles.
We're gonna flash his handles here at least his Twitter and
here's what's gonna happen.
Anybody who's been watching the show for 100 to 200 episodes is
a positive and like-minded person.
We got the community for you, Randy.
Instead of giving something philosophical
I'm gonna give you something practical.
Vayner Nation if you think you're an awesome person and you
have big ideas and you love networking, I want you to reach
out to Randy and I don't mean just tweet him
and be like "Hey."
I mean reach out to him give your number, email like connect
Randy of the 500 people that are gonna do it, 17 is gonna be a
real thing and there you go, man.
17 like-minded, positive people for you.
- [India] Yay!
- [Gary] You like that?
- Yay Randy!
(laughter)
- Let's go, let's go.
- [India] Last one. - Last one.
- [India] Gus. - Gus.
- GaryVee, thank you for taking this question, man.
Your friend Gus Fernandez from Orlando, Florida.
I appreciate it, big fan.
Here's my question.
The entrepreneurship Hall of Fame just called, you're getting
inducted man in 2025 but they
need to know what the plaque is going to read.
Let us know and which hat are you gonna wear?
Are you gonna have the hat that says CEO, NFL owner, what?
Let us know man.
You're the man. Thanks.
- Gus it would be a picture with a B on it.
My hat would have a B on it and it would say Honey Emperor.
- [Garrett] For what?
- I want to build a honey empire.
I want to be known as an entrepreneur 20, 30, 40 years
from now that this was the guy that came along and he built
$1 trillion empire on the way he interacted with his people.
He created a true insular, you know it's funny,
once in while when people first kinda
meet me they're like and for real in a
good way they're like, "Are you building a cult?"
They're like razzing me a little but there actually really
weirdly like I just really love leadership.
I really love people winning.
I love winning and I just generally believe that I can win
and you can win.
We all different ambitions and different wants and if one wants
to go and then go do their thing Mozel Tov, go do it.
Go win.
Shit, do you know how interesting it would be for me
if somebody left here, if Garrett left here and created
G-Squared Media it started beating VaynerMedia.
I'd be like my God, kudos fuck I want to kill him but like you
know like kudos.
Have nothing but respect for the game.
Honey Empire.
I'm going to like this is what I've always had difficulty with
how much Steve Jobs has been put on a pedestal.
Cool, you invented awesome shit but extracting value out of
people by making them cry and pushing them to that place it's
just Star Wars shit.
You know the Force is slightly better than the Dark Side.
Just slightly and that I'm fascinated by.
And I want to build something, what do you think this is about?
What do you think this is about?
It's about the woman I just met in the lobby who works in this
new building that stopped me and said, "I work here.
"I'm sorry to grab you.
"I found out about you.
"Everybody that's working here
"has been talking about your videos.
"I watched it.
"I'm inspired, I'm gonna do my own thing."
I can make money.
I can get fame and a lot, I coulda did a TV show like,
I could have been on Top Chef back in the wine day.
It was the number one fuckin' show on TV.
I could have been famous then.
Way more famous than I am right now eight years later.
Legacy, changing the game like creating the framework for so
many of you out there to look up to and aspire to to build your
honey empire so that good can win 'cause that's good.
That's just good for all of us.
Honey?
- [India] Honey company called Honey Empire.
- We're just gonna sell honey, right?
If you own a honey farm let us know because I'll JV and maybe
our first product should be honey.
You might be right. India, that was a good.
I think we're just gonna sell honey on Shopify.
Just like honey.
Do you think we could do a million in rev the first year?
I think we can.
Wait a minute. You know what's really crazy?
If this was like a sitcom
I would love the next scene to be
like literally like it's a $28 million.
I feel like if there's, by the way you want about a good piece
of content for Facebook or whatever it is in four years
this clip with the interview I do with FastCompany explaining
how we why and how we build a $50 million honey company.
By the way, I'm actually dead serious.
I'm gonna do it.
I'm in.
India, it's on you actually.
This is your parallel side gig and you too, Dunk.
You love this kind of crap.
- [DRock] Porn shop.
- Yeah we didn't do the porn shop 'cause Stunwin failed.
- [India] Yes. I will not fail.
- Dunk, you're on it too.
I want to put two people's pressure.
We're starting a honey company.
Question of the day if you had to sell something and start a
company, a physical thing, what kind of company would it be and
what would be the name?
Have the greatest weekend ever.
I'm taking my kids garage sale-ing tomorrow.
The hustle start early.
You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them.
- [Gary] You ask questions,
and I answer them.
This is The #AskGaryVee Show.