THIS Is The 1.5 Hr Car Ride That Will Change Your Business Strategy For GOOD | GaryVee Backseat Q&A

the sheer amount of people that start a DM to me of like, I used to make fun of you. I like didn't believe a word you said. Some guy hit me up this weekend who was basically apologizing. He's like, when I would get really drunk, I would lash out on you publicly because you were everything that I wasn't. People do not understand the power of envy and jealousy. It is destroying people. So, this 22-year-old wants to be successful fast. What do I say to this person? calm the down. Hey everybody, welcome to the first ever

backseat Q&A. I've done some backseat Q&A in the past. Heck, half of Daily V was backseat Q&A, but like a sit down 2 and 1/2 hour backseat Q&A. I'll probably have to do some phone calls or have some emergencies along the way. That's just the nature of my life. Uh Dustin McKenzie on the team are here and uh away we go. I'm ready. We have Andrea. How do you deal with toxic co-workers or family culture? Like if I have to be nearby someone I'm related to, for example, you own a restaurant together, how do you

deal if they're just really difficult? Family businesses are hard, you know, like I lived in it. I live in it. Like my my core business partners in my whole life are my dad and my brother AJ. So first and foremost, this is my number one piece of advice with family businesses, which is you're in charge. Meaning whoever you are, the dad, the mom, the grandfather, the grandma, the niece, the nephew, the son-in-law, the brother-in-law, the oldest, the youngest, the middle, life is about accountability. And how would I deal with it? Either you eat it because

you're a C player and you're getting paid like a B player or A player cuz you're living a Nepo life. You point at me. No, I didn't point at you. You're not. I'm just touching your leg cuz I'm, you know how I roll. Eastern European. Let's break this down. There are certain people that are about to listen to this that are the nepo baby, meaning they're the kid, the grandkid, and you're getting super compensated even though you're just okay. You're just average and you're getting overcompensated and you just need to eat it. You need to

eat it. Like, how do you deal with it? By realizing you're a Nepo baby and you're getting paid four times more than you're worth on the open market. And if grandma, granddad, uncle, niece, nephew, brother are [ __ ] on you and you're hating it, you just decide to eat it cuz you're accepting the dollar amount versus the day-to-day happiness. Number two, you're not the NEPO baby and you feel undervalued. You know, I lived this life like I was building it and felt that there was undervalued. I had the ability to do what I did.

I left. A lot of people are going to say, well, I put in all this time and did it. No crying in baseball. No crying in business. So, how do you deal with this? One, you're self-aware enough and you eat it and you have therapy and other outlets to make it palpable. B, you realize that nobody's crying for you and you can just leave the end. And I don't want the excuses. You know how I talk about perfection as an excuse for insecurity? I don't want to hear like, "But my grandma, but you know, one

of my family." No, no, no. If you don't [ __ ] love it, if it's eating you up alive, if you're dead, then you go and address it. And you address it by action. So, you either eat it because you're an epo baby or you leave cuz you're capable of standing on your own two feet outside of the family business dynamic. That is the answer to the question. We have Emma. Emma, advice for a firsttime leader in a first time manager role in a company that's growing fast, but it's been chaotic since starting. The reason

most first-time leaders fail is that they really struggle with the newfound power or they really struggle with the newfound obligation to be a delegator and a manager and a doer, not just a doer. So many people will go through the journey of being great at their job, be promoted to a manager where now they need to lead people to do that job well at scale and they will fail because they're a good doer but a bad manager because they either micromanage and don't delegate. So the efficiency for the business is not there. Meaning, if I

get paid 80K to do a job, 50K, now I'm paid 90K to manage 350Kers. If I'm not doing the manager part at 90 and I'm just working with the 50kers, the 3150, that's all in my 90. If it acts like in down there at 240, you're not getting the value because we're really getting a buck 50 of value because now four of us are doing the job of three and there's friction and you guys know this, people tripping all over each other. So you have to be a a a 90 up here that makes the

whole thing worth 240 and then some if you're a good manager getting value out of those 50s. So one, if you're a micromanager, that's not going to work. Two, a lot of people think they've become somebody. They had a bad manager when they were down in the 50 land. They [ __ ] on that manager. They go out for drinks with their co-workers and like [ __ ] Sally and Rick are [ __ ] right? And then they become the [ __ ] There are an enormous amount of employees who hate their [ __ ]

managers who then when they become a manager replicate the toxic bad behavior because subconsciously or consciously they're just reenacting that bad behavior. The hypocrisy of employee becoming manager to only then become exactly what the manager was is like at scale. I've seen it in my organizations. Go ahead, Mackenzie. Why do you think that happens? Cuz I think people are hypocrites. I think people are not self-aware. I think people are insecure. I think people are not empathetic. So, they become a manager and now all of a sudden like, "Oh [ __ ] my manager." Same [

__ ] as parenting. So many people listening and watching right now made all sorts of jokes about their parents, then they become parents. Especially as you become a little bit of an older parent. The the cliche one is and I have so many friends in this era now is we all remember the [ __ ] we talked about our parents when we were in high school that you remember you don't remember when you're two. Well then when you have kids that are in high school you're like oh [ __ ] Same with this manager thing.

There's a million people that are going to listen to this video or audio over the next decade. That will happen. Of those million people, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands have all sorts of opinions on their boss. When they become that boss, they're going to realize shit's different. What is my advice? A couple things. One, you need to be the bigger person in every situation. This is your employee. This is you need to work for them, not them working for you. You thinking like now you're like the [ __ ] prince or the princess and

everyone caters around you and you don't do [ __ ] is the fastest way to get fired. Happens all the time, by the way. happens all the time. Everybody's been eating [ __ ] to get to that moment to point. So, first you work for them. Two, overcommunicate. Overcommunicate to the people that work for you. How are you doing? What's up? This and that. Overcommunicate. Overcommunicate. Overcommunicate. Number three, attack issues. If you see Johnny is like moping this week and has always been cheery, go in it. It's an HR function more than anything else. Number

three, make sure your boss is aware of how you're managing. Make sure your boss knows like, I'm in these people's feelings. These 10 people that now report to me, these three people that know report to me, I care about how they feel cuz I was just them a week ago and I know what's happening in the trenches. Boss, this is what's going on. This is what I'm thinking. This is how we fix it. Number five, notice the question. In a high pass, chaotic place. This is my biggest strength. This is why I think I got

to the top. You take pressure from above you, your boss, your new boss, because you're now a new manager, and you stop it at your level. Your new boss comes to you and says, you know, you're a middle manager now. An upper middle manager comes to you and says, "Oh, [ __ ] If we don't hit these numbers, everyone's getting fired." You don't take anxiety and fear and just take it from you and then pass it down to your homies. It stops with you. And you may say, "But wait a minute, shouldn't the boss be

above me good at that?" Yeah, they should have, but they might not. There's a lot of people in Boehner X right now that are better managers than the manager above them. It's a human game. Everyone treats [ __ ] different. And so, you must stop the chaos at your level and make people underneath you feel calm. And your anxiety and your concerns and your franticness must go above you or parallel to you and not seep underneath you. The most vulnerable, the most junior in a company get the most spun up by a layoff, by a,

you know, a new competitor in the market, by, you know, the CEO crack. Like, you know, it's just the same old thing. Less experience, more spun up. What do you mean by spun up? Spun up means like sent into a tizzy and concerned. Like, we we hired like 80 new people in one office recently and we fired two people and everyone's like, "Everyone's getting fired." I'm like, "We hired 80 people." But like for you two, you'd be like, "You're in your career now a little bit." You're like, "Okay." But for someone 6 months out of

college, if that the two people that were fired were their friends after work or their boss, they're like, "Ah, they don't see the forest for the trees." Got it. So that's what I would say for a new manager. Stop the chaos at your level. You work for them. Kevin asks, "Kevin, if you're trying to take your side hustle full-time and only have three hours a day to work on it, that's literally it. Would you still suggest working on marketing activities versus sales? The thought is that if I focus 90% of my time on sales, I'd

be able to go full-time and then have hours to create content, brand, etc." I'm cool with that. He's saying if I work on sales, I'll get to I'll get to monies quicker that will allow me to then do marketing. I'm cool with that. None of my advice is universal. That's actually a tremendous thing to say in this. I'm glad it came up early. A lot of my advice is like valid to 78% 91%. 83%. I'm trying to go in the margins. Now, the stuff I talk about emotionally, not tactically. We're now talking marketing with Kevin.

The emotional stuff like don't be insecure. That's 100. So, don't use what I just said to be like, "Oh, cool. I can be [ __ ] I can use protect perfection as an excuse for I can be a dick f like no but the tactical [ __ ] marketing is is better than sales because it's sales that come to you his circumstance that's the macro that's 80%. In this scenario Kevin needs to get to that paper to be able to leave his job to be able to go into content. Yeah, I'm cool with that. That

being said, for Kevin included, one post on Tik Tok and one post on LinkedIn could go viral and outflank everything he's doing in sales. That being said, it's more practical, it sounds like, for him to go ham on sales, get that money up, and allows him to jump and start. And then, by the way, he probably has to double down on sales that first year to like solidify it, right? To make it stable, and then he can go into marketing. By the way, it's what I did with Vayner Media. I wasn't making content for Vayner

Media in 2009, 101. I was doing sales. I wasn't really doing content until the Askarv show in 14. I was doing wild TV up until 11. I was MIA 12 and 13 and I came back in 14 with the Ask GaryVee show and then we got to cook it. Now I'm also zeroing in on one thing. Yeah. Me doing marketing wine library TV and doing Twitter and Facebook is why I was able to sell. So, I started with marketing, then I did sales, then I went back to marketing. Got it. So, if I didn't have

Wine Library TV and had a million followers on Twitter, none of the Campbell Soup or the NHL or GE or PepsiCo would have hired me. So, it's a little bit, you know. Yeah. Saf says, Saf, Saf, what advice would you give to a fresh university graduate who's pressured about financial success? To calm the [ __ ] down. What do you mean pressure for financial success? For financial success? Mhm. Not even f Heck, I was about to be nicer. Not even financial like getting by in life. Let's break this down. When you are 22 years old,

your optionality is bananas. It's actually remarkable. Your life is so good compared to someone who's 40 or 38. You have so many options. If you're 39 and you have two children and you're at home and your shit's hitting the fan, you save money and you decide to move in with your parents. That [ __ ] is tough. That's a tough pill to swallow. the level of humility that is required to be a 38-year-old who's listening or watching right now. She or he is the breadwinner to the home or maybe they're both working parents, which is

so common now. And you look at each other's face and you're like, "We need to sell our home or we need to stop paying rent in our townhouse or apartment and we need to go live with one of our parents to reset." And our 11 and 13year-old are going to know it. We may even have to leave the school district and we have a 14-year-old teenager who's going to ask us why and we're going to say that we got we just lived above our means and our cash flow's tight or or what's going on right

now. As we sit here right now, the stock market is melting. People are losing jobs. People are losing money. Like shit's hitting the fan. By the way, all my content is about to hit so heavy the last six years because we've been in prosperity. Everybody's been crying about dumb [ __ ] about extra luxuries. People are going to be crying about not having necessities in a minute. Like real talk. If you're a 39year-old right now and you have to move back in with your parents, with your family, [ __ ] that hurts. The judgment, the

[ __ ] like the explaining to your children, you're 22. You can live at home. Nobody's got anything to say. You can live with five. I mean, when you're 22 years old, you can actually live in a [ __ ] hole with six homies and it's funish depending on how you're wired. Fun for me. I get some people are bougie and they like, h, but like got to share a shower, but like you can [ __ ] do that. Like this is highly not recommended. I don't want Mona to beat me up. But at 22,

your body is just in a place where you can eat like [ __ ] which means you could buy 99 cent [ __ ] meals. You got no [ __ ] stress. And the only stress you actually got is ideology or delusion. Like deep insecurity of keeping up with the Joneses. Like I had a combo kid. I was doing this combo and the kid's like, "Yeah, but Mark Zuckerberg." I was like, "What?" Dude was, "Yeah, but Mark Zuckerberg at 20." I'm like, "Bro, you're not Mark Zuckerberg. You're not Mark Zuckerberg. Most of you are not

me. And guess what? Good for you. And who gives a [ __ ] Like what are we talking about here? Financial success. I surely didn't have any until my late 30s. You had vision of what you wanted. I had vision of what I wanted. I had I had skills. I had patience. That's the one I had. Like yes, I had talent. I had skills. I had a vision. But most of all, I had patience and an unwavering like an urchin. Be friends. Pop that up. unwavering urchin. One of my favorite a sea urchin. I had

unwavering non-giving a [ __ ] about what you, Dustin, Mona, Avi, my parents, the world, and Jackpants 47 in the comments had to say about me and my journey. I had no judgment on anybody else's journey, which is the key to the whole thing. I had no gives a [ __ ] about what people thought about what I was doing. In fact, and I've said this, and both of you have heard this. You're in my content. People made fun of me in my friend group. I work at your dad's store. When I was 26, 27,

you've heard the story of some of my homies going to Wall Street making a little paper BMW, me carrying out cases to I say this a lot. I talk a lot about a lot of things and people intake it, but I don't think they believe it in the way that you both know. I work. You two know. You two know I work. They hear it, but they don't know it the way you know. Is the same way that you guys hear me saying, "I was 28 years old and I was carrying a case of liquor

out to my friend's car and I saw pity in a human's eye." Like, you guys don't know that like that. They definitely don't know like that, but I do. And I gave no [ __ ] cuz I knew where I was going. Cuz I was patient. Almost everybody wants it fast. Wants financials. Almost everybody. Almost everybody on earth wants financial success in their 20s to prove it to others, not themselves. I play for me, you play for we. I play for me and all of you play for them. Not even we, cuz we is, including

me. Almost all of you play for [ __ ] them. I play for me. And so what do I say to this person? Calm the [ __ ] down. Close your [ __ ] ears. Don't listen to the world. Definitely not your parents. Definitely not society. Definitely not your friends. Nobody. This is your [ __ ] life. You're either going to realize this at 90 or you're going to realize it right now. Literally, all I'm doing is speeding in a world where I hate speeding [ __ ] up. All I'm doing is speeding people's wisdom

of actual life up. You're going to either hear me now or hear me in a moment of despair or hear me in a moment of prosperity or hear me in a moment of just living life. You're going to hear me at 50, 60, 70, 80, 90. Just the sheer amount of people that start a DM to me of like, I used to make fun of you. I didn't I like didn't believe a word you said. Like now I'm 42 and I this. Boom. Some guy hit me up this weekend. I was an alcoholic. like he

was telling me in an email as if I'd seen all his comments on social. I had it because you know how I roll like this fingers and ears. Goat don't hear you piece of [ __ ] Don't hear you. But this dude wrote me an email over the weekend who was basically apologizing that he's been [ __ ] on me. He's like when I would get really drunk I would lash out on you publicly because you were everything that I wasn't. People do not understand the power of envy and jealousy. It is destroying people. It

is destroying people. So, this 22-year-old wants to be successful fast just like every other 22-year-old. I get it. I wanted to be successful slow. That's so like How did you know? Yeah. To go like fast would be bad. I didn't know fast would be bad. I knew that f I know that fast is shortcuts. I know fast is gambling. Look, let's bring it back since we got time. My obsession was to build something for my parents. I didn't see anything else. In the same way that most people that want it fast, let me give you

dudes cuz I really know these [ __ ] In a same way that a 23 year old that's watching right now wants it fast because he wants to use it to flex to hook up and to be the envy of his boys and to prove it to his mom or dad who didn't think they could. One of those three in the same way they're obsessed right now of fast. My version of that was I'm going to do this for my parents cuz my parents did right by me. And why did I have that? because I

got lucky with DNA and I got lucky with circumstance. Not everybody's an immigrant. Not everybody was born in the old country. Not everybody remembers the struggles that we went through. Not everybody had a mom that [ __ ] deserved it. Not everybody had a dad that worked every minute of his life. And I was already at a point in my life where I didn't resent him. I appreciated him. I was born with wisdom. Not every kid wants to hang out with 90 year olds when they're five, six, seven like I did. I am who I

am. And a lot of good with that, a lot of shortcomings with that. But that's me. That's what I was upset. So, I didn't know that fast was bad, but I know fast is bad now cuz kids gamble. I don't mean like actual gambling. I mean going with crazy idea startups, raising money from all their if they're wealthy and connected from their rich friends and goes to zero. If they're not, like they blame that they can't get funding and everything's just like the system's rigged. Everyone wants to say the system's rigged when it's not going

their way, but when it's going their way and they [ __ ] up. Is the system rigged when all these [ __ ] took the $2,000 check from the government that we printed for COVID when we [ __ ] are printing cash that is not grounded in anything and they took those $2,000 and bought [ __ ] Nikes and a Don P bottle? Is the system rigged? Anyway, I didn't know that fast was bad at 50 in my 50th year being alive as I turned 50 in November. I definitely know fast is bad for most

people now. Look, some people are alltime remarkable and catch a perfect moment in time. Mark Zuckerberg is all-time remarkable and caught a perfect moment in time. If Mark was born 30 years earlier, he might just have a successful scale dentistry company because his dad was a dentist. He's just a good entrepreneur who happened to come at the right time. If Friendster wasn't invented, if MySpace wasn't invented, Mark might have not built Facebook. All of them, me included, will tell you that timing is a huge part of this. But you have to be good enough to

take advantage of your timing. cable television, I would have crushed. I would have known that cable was the internet. I would be the king of cable, right? Virtual influencers. Now, if I was 18, I'd have the biggest virtual influencer agency. I'd be building it right now. I'd be building right now if I was in a different If I was 19, I would be building the largest virtual influencer agency in the world. What's fun about this two and a half hour is I can go so deep. This is not tea with Gary Vee. This is probably

going to be the legacy of the of the uh backseat Q&A format. I can go deep. It's I actually feel like I leave 10 to 15 to 20% off of every answer because of timing. So, I hope I'm even like talking myself into going deeper on these next follow-up questions. But the 22-year-old that wants to be successful fast is in these f in these foundational bricks, they are doing it for everyone else. Because if you're doing it for yourself, you're more guaranteed to get successful. Slow. That's it. Actually, I'm so happy I got it. There

it is. When you want to do it to impress everyone else, whether it's noble, your parents, whether it's it's deeply toxic, your parents, again, your parents both thought you were losers. That's going to make someone want to win. I was the reverse. Your parents think you're the mess. You want to you want to help them, right? Cliche for guys, the opposite sex. Have fun. Like, that's what guys see. They're like, I want to take a private jet with a a 10 and go to St. Barts. Like I know like you know and with a million

dollar like they want that life. They don't realize like sure that's great but like is it soulful? Is it like like is it like is it deep? Like why are so many people that have that life miserable as [ __ ] Drug addicts suicidal. Like sounds like it's not guaranteed. Like do do it the right way. If you do it for them, you want it fast. If you do it for yourself, you want it slow. I think the reason I'm not flashy is very similar to the reason I was willing to do what I did

from 22 to 34. I just don't do [ __ ] for them. Not for their validation, for their benefit. People sometimes like, "What do you mean you do everything? You're so public." I'm like, "Look, I'm not looking for their accolades, at least not for what I've done. I'm looking for the accolades of what I've done for them that they then did for themselves." that feels real. I don't want you to admire me for like my companies. I want you to admire me because I really gave you something that you did it with that and now

you're happy and you're thankful. Right, Mo? You when we were uh this weekend we were at that diner at that restaurant for brunch and that lady came to me. Yes. And she was like I don't want to interrupt you. We had a family thing going on. She's like, "But you had a real impact on me and my husband." And then she you saw she was like, "No, no, like a real real impact." I didn't get into it. I was family time. I wasn't gonna But like I just think there's a lot of incredible people listening

and watching right now who with a couple of tweaks can live a better life by impacting people in a positive way, which then will come back to them in a positive way. And I believe more people are capable of doing what I do. And it's in them, but they get strayed away and they go to the dark side. And I want to be Yoda to everyone's emperor. If you're putting out cheap [ __ ] you're going to have cheap fans. You're going to have cheap interactions. And it's going to not last long. I have one

here. It's a bit fullon. It's full on. Yeah. Okay. Do you want to go there? I want to go there. Okay. So, no name, but the username is no name. Yeah. Oh, it's a fullon T McGurt. Turt McGurt, the username. Okay. Uh, I've waited my whole life to take over my parents' multi-million dollar bakery. They're heavy into gambling and can't stop. So, they're just lingering while making me do all the work and not getting the credit for the most part. It's an I can't outshine the king type of situation. My pops is a narcissist and

so is my mother. I'd open up my own in a different city, but they're almost ready to retire. However, they know they can't because of their gambling addiction. I can't leave and open up my business because they need me. Do you have any advice? Well, it's crazy cuz this touched so heavy on the first question. This is a more detailed version. And I love that you asked it, McKenz, cuz the first one was a little more broad. This gets real deep. And like what I think is amazing about this Q&A session is that like when

I use my examples of like your mom is toxic. I don't go into like both your parents are gambling. Like this is perfect. This is why this is fun. So thank you. Um, look, I think though I think this is a different nuanced question and I'm so glad that people are going to be able to hear it because somebody might be in the exact same situation or instead of gambling it might be alcoholism or instead of gambling and alcoholism it might be spending, right? Their parents are just shopping and traveling. So it might make it

more real for someone but the answer is the same as the first one. The answer is very simple. they're in charge. They will never know if they jumped off too soon. Like, so for example, if I go on to say what I'm about to say, leave, leave, go do it. Because I think just the trauma and the emotional baggage is worth it even if you do financially less than inheriting. Also, I'm not so sold that they'll ever get off the payroll. Like a lot of people in this situation are like they're about to leave and

they stay for another nine years and so he's just wasting another three, four years before he realizes that, right? But to me, what I want him to hear or them could be she or others is you'll never know. For example, in this situation, if they leave and then their parents are like, "Oh, I'm retiring a year later." and they give it to like the cousin or they sell it. He'll be like, "Fucking Gary Vee gave me the wrong." Not true. If you stayed, they might have not left. If you leave, they're going to be out

because they're stuck or they're going to go back and work in the business or they're going to find some other chap like a manager or a niece to come and play your role. So, I want this person to know they wouldn't know anyway. There is no right answer. They leave now that plays out that way. They don't leave. They never know. And I I do believe, if I'm reading this question right, as long as they stay, the parents are staying given the circumstance. So, he has to play a game of chicken. Tell them you're leaving.

make the actions like fly to Cincinnati and look at a location like like act as if you're playing a game of chicken to try to get them to bluff so that they they would view it as well let's get our son or daughter to like make some sort of deal with us so we get some monies versus they're leaving and we know we can't or don't want to run this anymore and it's going to go to zero and then most of all if you have nar double narcissistic parents they're probably going to call your bluff.

So, not only do I need him or her to act as if they're leaving, I need them to be prepared to leave. So, you really want to inherit it because it sounds like you put in the work to inherit it. But you've got to be mentally prepared to leave. Look, some may listen to this and be like, "Man, poor person's in a tough spot." A lot of other people that have nothing to inherit are like, "Fuck this kid. Nepo baby." Life is how you see it. By the way, if you're one that always is like

Nepo baby or Lucky or any, you're not seeing it well. Like weaponizing envy and jealousy from the perspective of your position is why everyone's unhappy in life. It's insane what happens when you actually just decide to be happy for everyone that has it good and to be compassionate, sympathetic, and empathetic to everybody that has it bad and just kind of be neutral about all of it. It's a level of detachment from one's own self-interest that most people are never able to get to spiritually, mentally, emotionally. Bro Candle Co. Bro Candle Co. Yeah. Love it. I'm

fired up already. Let's go. Bro Candle Crow. I want to buy some candles already. All right. Go ahead. I'm having a debate with my brother. Okay. I'm putting the work in on social media believing it's not just luck, but an element of skill and consistency required. He thinks it's pure luck. So my question is, is going viral pure luck? No, viral is not 100% skill. Otherwise, I'd go viral every day. But it's definitely not pure luck. Otherwise, like what are we talking about here? Like there's a reason Mr. Beast and I and others like are

successful and consistently successful. What have I just been lucky for 20 years? So I think both of you are right, but you're more right because you're choosing optimism and he's choosing cynicism. Anybody who weaponizes luck in life is really interesting position where they have to really self-reflect and ask themselves why they think that. Now, I don't know the dynamics here. By the way, the brother that's asking the question could be in the wrong. He might be not working that much, not working that hard, and is like posting twice a day on social, kind of putting

in three hours of real work, even though maybe 10 hours are eaten up. And other bro might be making the candles, running the ops, running the finance, running the bucket management, like doing like 10 hours of real work and might have some sort of feelings. So, let's not jump to conclusions again. As they always say, there's like two sides to the story and then there's the actual truth. But to answer the question directly, not the underlining question that I can smell in the question. Virality is not pure luck. It is also not pure skillish. You

have to have the skill to put yourself in a position to be viral. Including if you go viral for something silly, you had to have the skill of humor. Like why do we continue to diminish people's things? I do not judge what the consumer values. If they value attractiveness, I do not judge. I understand. If they value humor, I do not judge. I understand. If they value information, I do not value. I understand. If they value communication delivery capabilities, I do not judge. I understand. Like I if you were a human, this is actually a

very important moment in the entire thing. If you are a human being that shits on a piece of content or a human being that has gone viral, you are very likely deploying a massive level of jealousy that is suppressing your ability to have the same thing happen. Instead of saying like the hot tua girl is like an idiot and this is [ __ ] up and why don't you understand what it means? Like what does it mean that like sexual innuendo jokes overindex and societ? What does it mean? I'll give you an example for me.

Does it mean that let me use a good one. Does it mean that sexuality and sex is a foundational human characteristic animalistic characteristic that is a universal understanding that you know makes both sexually expressive parts of the world or sexually I mean I don't think America a lot of Americans realize how sexually prude America is compared to most of the world. Is a lot of the world's problems created in our relationship with sex as human being? I would say there's a lot of deep [ __ ] to what I just said. I feel like I

got a lot of H or ahuh in this answer, but like my framework when I see stuff go viral is why. And I want to go deep, not surface. I want to get in there. Most people are like, "That's stupid. This is silly. [ __ ] her. This is garbage. That's funny. Haha, cool. Silly blah." It's like people go into like dumb [ __ ] never had a moment where something did get popular and you yourself just was like, I don't get it. I don't get a lot of things. I get that part. I get

the part that I don't get a lot of things. The audacity and lack of humility, Dustin, of a human being saying, "I don't get it and thinking that means it's true is one of the most laughable behaviors in society." Who the [ __ ] do you think you are? You're the composition of 8 billion people's interests. I get that my opinion doesn't matter. It's so funny cuz um have you heard the term what aboutism? What aboutism? I have not heard that yet. It's like this phenomenon online where people will see a video and think that

it needs to be catered to them. It's like what what about me? Like I don't get this. So like but what about me? I don't like when we create new words. Like imposttor syndrome is in insecurity. What about isism is is [ __ ] audacity and lack of humility. I don't need to make a new term for it. You [ __ ] who are listening and watching almost all of you are deeply grounded. By the way, I'm a human being. Of course I have audacity and insecurity. But my levels like in the same way some

people are just [ __ ] diesel and 0%. Like I'm [ __ ] deep on this one. It's my superpower. I don't need what aboutism coined. I need I know that most people are unhappy because they're audacious and lack humility and they don't see it in me because they get the version of me that seems convicted, confident, but what makes me behind the scenes like really operate is my humility and curiosity. Like when I see Humble Hedgehog, right, and Curious Crane like in V Friends, I'm much more like attached to that than Conviction Cockroach and

Confident Cobra. Even though I like those characters, too. I'm a mix, but people are lacking humility, which is why they don't have confidence. Tough to get to pure confidence. People call it ego. Ego's insecurity disguises confidence. True confidence is foundation is humility. Why would I care what people think? Of course I'm not the right cup of tea for most of of course most people don't think I'm the best looking, the smart. Like people have different flavors, different tastes. Like what the [ __ ] the matter with everyone? Your audacity is eating up your life. Almost

everything I don't get. I get that's the way it's supposed to be. And I get excited about my curiosity to figure out. I get everything because there's only 13 things. I may not get in the nuance, but look where I went with the Haktua thing. I went to core like depths of humans relationship with sexuality. There's only 10 things. There's only two things, good and bad, light and dark. Then underneath there's 10, 15 things that represent that. And that's why everything's easy for me to read. Show me a human. Let me audit their parents, where

they grew up, in what era, and I'll tell you who the [ __ ] they are. Simplicity is what's complicated for most. Shit's simple out here. You take it all the way to the bottom of like just care about the health and wellbeing of the people you love and [ __ ] if you can go all the way there, you will skip and whistle through life. Everything you add on top of that will [ __ ] you up. How do you think we got to a place of complic over complicating everything? Materialism has really hurt

people. We've lost our way with valuing stuff and achievement over family and community which is you know people find that so you know I love collecting things. I love it's but I don't it's not it's like it's my hobby not my life. My work is my hobby. I do not get myself validation for my professional career. I just do not. You see, you know how I play basketball. The [ __ ] does that pickup game mean? Means nothing. Yeah. Right. I go harder in playing a pickup game than I do in running my companies. It

means more to me. But why? Like why? Because it's I I'm very passionate about I love it and I'm not in control. In business, I'm passionate about it, but I'm in control. That's why I want to buy the Jets so I can just take control of this thing that's pissing me off. I also believe that if you care about things that are silly, it's actually very healthy. I'm very hot on this thesis. How do you define what's considered silly and not silly? What's not silly is like politics is not silly because it affects people. Yeah.

Sports is silly. Is work silly? I think work is I and this is why I'm treading lightly because you see where I was about to go. Like everybody has to define it. I think living within your means is not silly. Like while I'm on this tangent, let's get to the punch line because we're going pretty deep here. Everybody on Earth gets happier if they live within their means. I think the credit card has a chance to go down as one of society's biggest vulnerabilities like in history. You know, it's a new invention. Yeah. We've only

been chilling with the credit card for 50 years. Like I think the credit card is again, it's not the credit card's fault. It actually can be remarkable if you know what you're doing. I just think most people don't know what they're doing. I think people don't live within their means. It's why I always attack the American dream of owning your house. I love it. Fine. It's an asset. I get it. But [ __ ] people don't play it right. Everybody maximizes their deposit, gives them no cash flow. Anything tweaks off. Now they're living paycheck to

paycheck. This is why I attack fancy cars and watches. Kudos to all the [ __ ] big shout out big shout out to all the o all the gangster entrepreneurs who have built something sustainable that allows them to afford a $500,000 watch and they don't even think about it the way most people think about buying a $5, you know, soda. I worry about the people that bought it that if god forbid something gets [ __ ] up or their get quick thing, get quick rich thing gets [ __ ] up, they have to sell that

to a pawn shop and lose 80%. It's nuanced. Live within your means. Have a have four Lambos. If that's within your means, easy peasy and you like them. I live that. I buy very expensive pieces of cardboard. I would argue most more people universally think that watches and Lambos are better than trading cards. Too many people don't live within their means. That's what's killing. So, is a job silly? If you're living deeply within your means, it can be. You got tons of savings. You don't need a job for 5 years. If you guys I don't

know your situation. If both of you had 10 years worth of salary saved, my intuition is you'd be less concerned about losing your job or stressed about it because you would have optionality. I think people do not realize how much money they spend on how many things during the course of a year and how much it is gone. Like people don't think about savings and everyone's like inflation and we got [ __ ] by the boomers and no accountability. You know what the boomers think? The boomers think like, "I didn't go out to eat every

day. We cooked at home." You know what the boomers think? They're like, "We didn't have seven purses. I had one purse for 9 years." I think people would, some people would argue, "Life is short, so I'm just going to do whatever I want." Then stop complaining. You picked your short path. Shut your [ __ ] mouth. By the way, on the record, you can do whatever the [ __ ] you want. Don't complain. By the way, a lot of people are right for their individual life, right? Like man makes plan. God laughs. Somebody out there

decides to live, burn a [ __ ] burn it to the ground like [ __ ] $100,000 jet, great enjoy in debt, great enjoyment, live their life, and they were destined to get hit by a car and die at 41 and they played it right potentially. It also depends if that's where you get your joy. I can tell you that's not where I get my joy. I know a lot of people do and that's awesome. But look, I get my joy of sitting courtside at Knickskate. That requires money. Again, we all are doing it different.

I think everybody can do everything if they shut their [ __ ] mouth. Almost all my content is based on people that talk. I would argue my whole framework is about complaining. I think everything's cool if you don't hurt anyone and you don't complain. You can do whatever the [ __ ] you want. And if you're complaining, I'm assuming you're upset. You know what I complain about? I don't want to go to the gym. And guess what? I don't like it. Yeah. So, complaining comes from a place of unhappiness. I was going to ask like

how black or white are you on complaining? Like, I'm black and white, but that's not like I think that's where we're about to go. Like, listen, I was raised in a household that demonized the [ __ ] out of it to a point where I think it went too far. Then you start getting into not sharing like real life [ __ ] Yeah. So, I think there's a fine line here. Like I am concerned about that part. But like yeah, I'm visceral to complaining. Like I think sharing your struggles is healthy. Therapy. It's how you

form a good relationship. Real cander. I think that's different than complaining. And I think that's why everybody's so upset because now people think they're not in charge of their lives. They literally think that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are their life in America. Stock markets collapsed last right several days. Warren Buffett sold all his stocks a couple weeks ago. Remember I mentioned it. I'm like this is the most historically correct guy of the game. We could have all just followed. I made a reference to Dustin about it. It was on TW. It was on TW

every week. Let's clip it. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of indications that the economy might be crashing. Warren Buffett just took all his money into cash. He's usually right. So now back to accountability. Literally right now. Do you understand McKenz how many people right this second because we're in it as we're filming everyone? This is the Monday after like all this like tariff stuff. You could have sold all your stock. [ __ ] you would have made a fortune. Warren Buffett can reby all the [ __ ] he sold for a make

a fortune. You could have I'm not even following public markets and I was aware that Warren did that. I'm like, maybe I shouldn't do that. Whose fault is that? Selfacountability sets you free. Sets you super free. It's all your fault. And the second you realize that, life becomes phenomenal. And to the counter that, yes, there's things that happen. Like, was it your fault that you crossed the street when that truck came? I guess. I mean, you cross the street, but like I get it. Like, some of us are born with genetic. Somebody who was born

right now into the single most povernstricken part of our world. Of course, there's things in life. But if you decide that you are fully not capable of getting out of it, well, then it's a wrap and the world's got to change its tune. That's why I get so mad at eighth place trophies because then those kids don't think it matters. And when you don't think it matters, then you don't think you can. And when you don't think you can, that when adversity hits, you actually think suicide's the right option. This shit's deeper than people think.

And people think it's like, oh, no, no. They they disguise it or like we need unless you're a deeply evil person, who wouldn't want it to be okay for everybody? Like, I get that. Like, I'm so deep into that. But where does self like reliance on creating that start and where does it stop? And it's always grounded in wealth and they're like why are rich kids like the biggest drug addicts and they're the biggest [ __ ] alcoholics? Like money is not the variable. There's just so much dude. We got to get back to [

__ ] got to get back to community man. I think it's so much better when you you know it's my favorite part of be friends watching these people build a community. It's so cool. That's why I love sports community. It's funny cuz my my family are really big into sports and I grew up in a house where sports was always there and I just don't have that. Yeah. And you're and sometimes I look at my mom and my brother and I'm like I wish that I cared because they seem so much fun. Yeah. And it's

nice for them, right? It's nice for them. But by the way, there's other things. There's there's religion which brings so much community so wonderfully. Everything is good and everything is bad. Ready? Let's break it down. Religion such a great source of community for so many weaponized by others to kill. Sports such a good sense for community for some leads to their gambling addiction which leads to their downfall for others. Right? Wine such an incredible thing for community and joy in collecting and learning and escapism for some enables their alcoholism and ruins them for others. This

absolutism is [ __ ] everybody up. My friends, none of this is real. This is all just about you until you start looking at you, working on you, fixing you, hacking at you, understanding you, loving you. It's all you. Everybody's about them. politicians, other religions, other countries, other genders, other races, other sexual orientations, other income levels, other other them them. Your life is about them, which is why you're unhappy, which is why you're not fully fulfilled. You get right with you. And then once you get right with you, an amazing thing happens. Then you start

loving them. Then you start wanting to help them. You mentioned imposttor syndrome a while ago. Let's go to it. We have Liz asks, "I started my business at 50 years old and it's successful, but I still have issues with imposter syndrome and confidence in raising my pricing. How to overcome that?" I don't know her, but whether it's riding a bike, swimming, kissing someone for the first time, having sex for the first time, um going to middle school, first day of middle school, first day of high school, first day of college if you went there, first

day of a new job, everything's scary until you do it. I think asking for more money is actually one of the easiest things to ask for because I'm comfortable with No, Liz isn't. When you ask for a higher price, if they say no and you're understanding that you're capable of saying, "Okay, I'll take what you're offering." Or you're able to say, "No, I'm sorry. I have to move on." You're good. Too many people get upset because they feel like that no is like some sort of form of validation. What about the idea of getting a

no that ruins the relationship? It can't. Never in the history of somebody asking for more money respectfully, empathetically, calmly, with context, has that ruined. If if I cut your hair for 15 years, okay, and you walked in right now and I'm How much do you pay for your haircut? 40. 40. And you walk in and I'm like, Dustin, you know what? You're a [ __ ] [ __ ] I've been doing this for 15 years and like you take me for granted. I'm $55 an hour. All right. Well, that can ruin the relationship. Like, what

the [ __ ] just happened? Because I've been holding it in and I didn't know how to ask and and I had a bad moment just happened or I lost 10 of my clients or I saw you get a haircut on social media by somebody else, but the reason you, Dustin, did that was it was in my video and the guy came to our room and did it and you just took it, but like that triggered me. Fear leads to bad interactions versus dust. You've been with me for a long time. want you to know

something. It's April. It's April 7th right now. Starting the Monday after starting September 10th. Big shout out Sasha Vayner Trick. That's his birthday. Starting September 10th, you know, I'm going to 55 bucks. I wanted to give you a lot of time. You know, my hope is that you see the value in what I do, but I wanted to give you enough time in case you wanted to consider going somewhere else. I really want to keep you. I need your business. And if you're like, "Hey, Garrett, I'm sorry. Like, my [ __ ] boss Gary Vee

is a real dick. He hasn't given me a raise in a while. I got to stay at 40. Then I'm like, you know what, D? I've always really like you. Can you do me a favor? Don't tell anyone cuz I'll grandfather you. I may not grandfather everyone. It would undermine. That's a very different conversation. And that's the hard one. That's a current cluster. If you're 40 bucks haircut ready, watch this. And I'm always 40 bucks for Obby, for you. McKenzie, let's role play. Mackenzie come in be like, "How much is your haircut?" Go ahead. How

much is your haircut? $50. Okay. Now, Mackenzie could be like, "Hey, I heard you were 40." And I can make a decision. McKenzie could say yes. McKenzie say that's a little too much. I'm going to go shop somewhere else. I'm in control of my next move. Many times in my career, I've said this much. They've said no. And I'm like, "Okay, I'll take that." Many more times, thankfully, because I keep ascending, I say. Vayner Media, my speaking fee, everything. I say, and they leave, and I'm cool with it. And many of those times they come

back and want it. And you see that at the baseball card shows at the national. If you look carefully, you'll film this year. I'll negotiate. Sometimes they walk, sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't. But it's not scary. I get that it's scary for many, but done respectfully. And knowing that you can change your mind and go back and realizing their no doesn't mean that you're not good or you're good or this or that. Once you get there, you're unstoppable. And imposttor syndrome must be eliminated. Websters, I don't know if you I assume you put

it in your book. Take it back out. Leave it there as like we just are going back to being insecure. People are putting makeup on big words to make it more palpable. You've both insecure way of saying insecure. It's an insecure way to say insecure. Well said. Think about with your homies. You're like like you guys are in that age group like you're in life the last 10 years, right? like imposter syndrome uh just it's it hits so different if your friend's like yo I'm just insecure to ask people what the [ __ ] you

know you're getting coddled when you use imposter syndrome you're getting pushed harder if you say insec every single person's going to resonate with this right now you tell your homies your best friends your parents whoever your boss you say imposter syndrome you get coddled again you say insecure you get pushed say it out right now everybody take a pause hey man you know I'm really struggling with insecurity to ask for a What the [ __ ] Don? Go for it. You're the [ __ ] best. I have some real imposter syndrome tastes. Yeah, me too.

Like, it's a [ __ ] coddle [ __ ] circle jerk. Imposter syndrome is another word that's being used by the [ __ ] overcoddling society. I'm going to say this on the record so there's no confusion. I believe the overcoddling society was well intended. I don't think they had some bad agenda. I don't think they're trying to [ __ ] up the USA. I think it was well intended. But I also think it was delusional driven by parents that didn't have their life in order and understanding how much entitlement, how much prosperity we have.

This is why immigrants and people of less means just [ __ ] on this. They're [ __ ] tired of hearing people that have it so good complaining. I have all sorts of people watching. The CEO of a Fortune 100 right now watching making 38 million a year. kid making $38 a year in a small part of the world is watching right now and everybody in between. We're all hearing [ __ ] different. I'm trying to go to the universal truth. Whether you're making 100,000 a year, 4 million a year, or 4 cents a year,

get other people's names out of your mouth. Stop judging people and you'll stop judging yourself. Stop judging people and you'll stop judging yourself. Stop judging people and you will stop judging yourself. You stop judging yourself, you will [ __ ] move fast, light, happy. No pressure on the chest. It's why I sleep so well. How do you stay consistent with daily content when you're in a highly regulated industry like finance where every single piece of content has to be approved by compliance and marketing? Who's this? Um, doesn't say LinkedIn though. Very easy because there's people

that do it and get ahead of your content. Excuse City USA regulated industries. Yes, I'm aware that there's things for the SEC. And by the way, there's things for not marketing to kids. And by the way, there's things for not marketing to with alcohol. Dio is a client. Mattel and Hasbro both have been clients. Chase and Visa are clients and been clients. I've seen it all. Excuse. Your piece of content may take three days to come out or nine days to come out instead of right away because it has to go through compliance. The [

__ ] does that have to do with making content. That means you're just on a nine-day behind cycle. You make a piece of content now comes out in 9 days. I make a piece of content tomorrow comes out in 10 days. I make two pieces of content next day comes out in 11 days. Sounds like if you keep doing this, you're starting your real life in 9 days. [ __ ] excuses, y'all. You got all sorts of excuses to me. I'm a perfectionist. I'm in a regulated industry. I'm this. I'm that. You don't want to

do the work. I got excuses, too, McKenzie. I got excuses. Oh, Mike, I was out late on doing whatnot last night. It's so late. Ah, I'm traveling so much from London. I just took a long flight. I got excuses for days when it comes to being in the gym. By the way, this is why it's so easy for me to understand what people are doing at work, in their career, cuz I do it in the gym. I smell it on you cuz I got it in me, too. Not in this category. You saw when we

were in the off site and me and you worked out. People didn't want that heat. I was like Andy Rips. They don't want it, right? But Rips is willing to work 19 hours a day. Yeah. And others might not want that, right? We all have discipline. Some people are disciplined eaters, working out, parents, um, readers, you know, like entrepreneurs. And other people aren't. But I've also won in the gym in a certain way. That's why like the gym has really mattered to me because I'm so far along compared to where I was. That means everybody

here can make progress on their personal brand, on their career, on their entrepreneurial side hustle, on their actual startup, on their We can all get better. Every one of us. And that's staying within the walls we work in. Back to the big [ __ ] We can all start new relationships and break up with ones that are hard. spouse, siblings. I I said this the other day. I'm not advocating for divorce. I'm saying we can be accountable. You can move to Thailand. You could like everything is yes, maybe. And everyone's a no cuz they're more

comfortable laying in the muck of their excuse. Second you understand that, you get happy. People don't see that. the last 25 years of parenting is no is the person sucks. You're like, "No, you don't suck, baby. It's just it's your boss's fault. It's your teacher's fault. It's society's fault. You got [ __ ] You were born in the wrong era." This Gen Z thing of like wrong era. Best era. [ __ ] are complaining that the boomer boomers ruined it and making millions of dollars is 22 year olds. There was zero 22-year-old millionaire self-made [

__ ] 40 years ago. Best era. What 16-year-old could [ __ ] grab a phone, make a video of themselves dancing, and become a multi-millionaire in 3 years in 1986. Shut your mouth. You should kiss the ground the boomers lived on if you're talking about the era. Separation of wealth, yes. Inflation, yes. But doesn't mean you can't. You can more than ever. You know what really makes me throw up? A lot of these like I like I really know a lot of [ __ ] and a lot of people. There's people that make content [

__ ] on boomers whose grandparents left them $5 million. People need to shut their [ __ ] mouth is what really needs to happen. If they're spitting poison, stop being negative, y'all. [ __ ] The only one that's losing if you spew negativity is you. With such a large team, how do you manage one-on-one meetings effectively? What do you do to ensure everyone feels heard, valued, and supported? You know, it's funny, and this is a tricky one. I the the real answer is you just schedule as many one-on- ones as possible. I'm sad that I

can't do that for Vayner now. I really did it for those first hundred. That's how we became the culture that we became. I think the most important thing is for people to really know you're there if they need them. I would say that both of you have felt times of like needing more one-on-one time with me or at least a one-on-one time with me. But I would also argue that if I really pushed you that you would both admit under a lie detector test that if you really needed me, if you're like, I really need

15 minutes with you, I think you both know it would be done immediately, not even in a week. Yes. Yeah, definitely. The fact that both of you could say absolutely, that's what I think is the answer to everybody. The answer to the question is you need to make everybody feel like you can be there if they need you in an emergency. And then you need to use your intuition on knowing who to talk to when you know like if you feel it like and then you do things right you do little things like when you

interact with people digitally like there'll be times where I can feel a little something and I'll go out of my way of like great job McKenzie if I'm like you know like like doing little baiting to see if they'll jump on that. Like I don't do it to avoid the meeting. In fact, I do it to create the meeting. You know, when I give Aaron a compliment on our team, as I've started to do a little bit, right, that's like, okay, she's like, okay, I'm being seen by him. If I need him, I feel now

more comfortable to get him. Not I'm doing that so I don't have to do it. I'm actually always open to do it and always open to not do it. Again, I don't want to create the [ __ ] circle of overcoddling. I want to do it when you need it. because that creates scale and it also creates resilience and the ability to address things themselves. Other times, I mean, I just told somebody that's been at the company for nine years that I was disappointed with them for not coming earlier, but they were trying to do

the resilience thing. So, it's all [ __ ] balance, balance, balance, balance, balance, balance, balance. By the way, if you want to start collecting V friends, which I recommend to all of you, the balanced beetle. Actually, I want everybody who's listening right now to stop and take the quiz. vfriends.com/quiz. Find out which bee friend you are. I am literally building the next Marvel in Pokemon in your faces. And 99% of you that are in the middle of this video right now or in the podcast literally are not collecting. It's a huge mistake. Especially if you

have somebody under 10, what your mom and brother have, that's what be friends is. If you have a kid under 10, immediately collecting be friends together because you can use the be friends to teach them really good attributes will change your life forever because it will make you and your child closer. My sister and I are very close. We talk a lot about the fact that me and AJ have similar interests which has allowed us to be close in a way that me and my sister are is different. We have different kinship. We grew up

together and we're like closer in age and we're so close. But like if my sister like like collected trading cards and like was it Dar and Jeff? Like it's different. Similar interests matter. Finding those with your children matter for a lot of people watching right now. I really think V friends can be that. Plus I think V friends is a co-parent. Like when you have to tell your kid what tenacious termite means and you start talking some people never talk about tenacity. Didn't your parents ever talk to you about tenacity? I don't even think we

knew the definition. Yep. Yours. Great. I believe that if you open a pack of bee friends and your seven-year-old gets tenacious turkey and like mom, what's tenacious turkey? And you talk to your kid about tenacity that that will have a disproportionately meaningful impact on their life in a way that I don't think most people understand. I believe gritty ghosts, tenacious term. Right. Right. Like accountable aunt. This now goes into what the modern parenting needs to get back to purple, back to the middle. We don't talk about that [ __ ] We don't talk about it.

And it's the thing. Resilience, grit, accountability. These will change kids life. So, I'm pumped about that. Sorry for that little V friends commercial, but I'm telling you, you're [ __ ] up. If you're not part of V Friends, come and join us. I know you say it's all about the individual piece of content, but I feel like my videos don't get seen by enough people to get me any traction. All my Tik Toks are me recapping the show Survivor, and I don't have many followers. Can you tell me how to find the success you're always

talking about where someone with only a few followers gets a million views happens all the time. Now, a million's hard. A few 10 followers, million views happens. Happens actually all the time, which is nuts. Which is why this is the greatest era of social media. But the answer to your question is garyve.com/attention if you don't have 15 bucks and the answer is day trading attention. There is a skill to this. The end. This person clearly stinks and that's okay. I stink at a lot of stuff too. I would argue we stick at Tik Tok. We're

not growing. Like you have to give it love. What's my answer? My answer is I made a 44page deck for free. Here it is. Flash it for everybody who's listening. GaryVee.com/attention. Download it. Read it. Implement it. do it for a year and then call me back. I have a funny feeling you'll have a post that does well. And for the people that really are about that life, if you got 20 bucks, go to Amazon and buy day trading attention. I went deep on this last book. It is a [ __ ] banger. Let me do

a break real quick. We'll be right back, everybody. I'm just going to check make sure there's no fires. Barbara said, "I am 44 years old and decided to become an author. I'm currently working on a book as a self-publisher. Part of that is creating a social media presence to reach people, but social media really can be extremely draining and timeconuming for me. The reality is I'm not really into that part of the process and instead just want to write. Do I really need to be the one to do all to do all of that in

order to be noticed? Uh, if you wanted to sell, Barbara, now good news, Barbara, you could be an author that is one in a million that just wrote such a book that it went viral by itself. Good news, Barbara. You could take money you have, if you have any. I don't know if you do, and you can hire someone to do the social media for the book. Just depends on what you want, my friends. Like, I didn't make up the rules. Like, I just hope everybody understands that. I didn't make up the rules that the

way the world works is like people need to know about something to consider it to buy it. I didn't make up the rules that distribution changes. Like, yes, Barbara, in 1967, you might have wrote a book. A, you wouldn't be able to self-publish in 1967 without the internet, Barbara. B, let's just play a fantasy world that you could. Yes. And a bookstore owner that was prominent might put you at the front of the table and handell it because they like the book just like I did for wines. There are many wines that I Gary Vaynerchuk.

There's one Budro. I think it's Budro. There was one Washington state high-end wine that I just happened to buy that I just happened to luckily walk down the aisle at Wine Library and grab and put on the table that I opened and my pallet just happened to think it was remarkable. I freaked out, looked in the back of label, told everybody what the address or email or phone number was, linked it into my wine library TV post, and sent hundreds of people, thousands of people to the mailing list, and now it's sold when it didn't

before. That happens. Luck is life. You don't have to do [ __ ] Barbara. But you're self-publishing, which means you're self- selling. If you want people to read it, if you'd like it to be commercially successful, yes, you have to market. But by the way, you don't have to do social media. Go do 50 podcasts. But who the [ __ ] wants you on without social media? People confused out here. Barbara, can I ask you something? I'd like to look like an Adonis without eating well and exercising like a freak. Possible. She could say yes.

Steroids, implants, oepic sounds expensive. Yale says Yale. Yale. Any advice uh for someone going into a new work field at 30 to realize you don't need any advice? 30, they're a [ __ ] kid. Honestly, 30 and 22 is the same exact thing, you know? Like don't compare. Don't say I wish I started. Like here's a good one. You start at Yale starts at 30. Couple weeks in she's like I'm [ __ ] loving this. We've had that happen at Vader. We are very weird cuz of our residency program. We have a lot of people

come in at like 29. And some of them will meet with me oneonone. They're like, "I wish I came in with all these 20 year olds." I'm like, "Why?" Right. Right. Right. Because I was late 20s when I started. You started what? I was like uh 29 or something when you came to Vader. Yeah. Right. I'm sure it might have You're a human. I'm sure it might have run through your mind especially if you decided I mean you've obviously been here a little while. It's going well. Like you might have been like damn I should

have done this at but what what is I should have or I wish. Poisonous sentence starters. I should have I wish that. Like so let's play out the scenario. Here's my advice. You're 30. You walk in. You love it. You found your place which happens to a lot of people. You know yourself better at 30 than you do at 22. 18. Promise me Yale that you won't be like, I wish I did this or I should have done this at 22. Be grateful. Be humble. Yes, you're what? What are you worried about? Starting behind. If

you're talented in a year, you might be past people that have been there for seven years. The There have been people in our company that have started 20. Mckenzie, you're one of those people. I mean, I don't look very sitting right here. 28. You come in a year later, you're more advanced than people that have been at the company for 5 years. Sounds like you're at the same place. So, don't cry. Next, like about what could have. That's another one. What could have, I should have, I wish. There's just it is true. Accept it. Swallow

the pillow reality. It's good [ __ ] medicine. It's a lot better than this dwelling potion you all [ __ ] drink every morning. I like that. The pill of the pills of reality are more delicious than the potions of delusion. I like that. We need to make that as a picture card and then clip this. When you swallow reality pills, they're yummy. When you drink delusional potion, it's sending you down a bad path. Now the other version walks in and a month in it's a disaster. She's like, "What the [ __ ] was I

thinking about medical field? I'm scared of blood. What the [ __ ] was I thinking?" Don't beat yourself up. Good news. Let's say you walk in, it's a disaster [ __ ] show. You're just going to text me, DM me next year and say, "Any advice for somebody starting in a new field at 31?" And I'm going to give the same advice and 33 and 37. The pills of reality are delicious. They're like those old like Flintstones vitamins. They tricked you into taking that [ __ ] even though it's probably bad for you. That's why

it tasted so good. I sat in the closet once and eat them all. You did? You did? Cuz they were candy. They were a little [ __ ] up. They're like chalk. But I got McKenz. It's all the same [ __ ] You know that, right? Like I said earlier, it's only two things. Optimism, pessimism. Good, bad. Light, dark, hope, fear. And there's the same cliche 13 things underneath. Mom, dad, siblings, bosses, you know, and now a new one public persona, right? We're all learning that. That's what got everybody on tilt. All this anxiety was

always there. But now people that were trying to impress everybody in their family and neighborhood, now they got to impress everybody in the world. Got it? The scale got heavier. But it's the same [ __ ] I love how everyone was like, "It's all [ __ ] up now." I'm like, everybody was an alcoholic in the 60s. What are we talking about? What are we We didn't talk about these feelings back then. We got better. We're better. But everybody thinks it's worse cuz we talk about everything. It's better. You picked, if you're watching or listening,

you picked the single best time to ever be alive. But mainstream media is not going to make you think that. And then the people on social media amplifying mainstream media are not going to make you think that. But guess what? I'm going to make you think that. And I'm right here. And I'm social media dust. Go put on the [ __ ] television. Go open the newspaper. Show me the positivity cuz I'm right here at at Gary B. And I'm not the only one. So, ironically, social media's got a lot more positivity, optimism, practicality than

television. But people want to blame it because that's a narrative that mainstream media wants to take. Those [ __ ] are pushing poison. I got no time for them. I got no time. I turn those on to know everything. But I don't let those [ __ ] penetrate me. Those [ __ ] insecure pushers, poison pushers, negativity pushers. Negativity is [ __ ] everybody up. Cut negativity out of your life. Television, social media, mommy, daddy, toxic voice, boss, excuse me, anybody, everybody. Cut limit. Cut limit. Cut limit. Cut when it doesn't matter. Random friend cut.

Limit when it's mommy. I don't advocate for fully cutting out toxic mom. I advocate for limiting it and putting pressure on her. Mom, we got to go to therapy together. What are you talking about that? What about people that do cut off their mom too too easily? Do you have anemia? Do you think that's like too extreme? I don't know if it's too extreme. It usually means that they have the same traits. Means they're struggling with the empathy and compassion they're seeking. In your experience, what's the number one thing that holds people back from progressing

within a company? And what feedback do you give someone in your own company that's being held back because of this? That's a great question. Many things hold back people from growing in a company. Number one, things that have nothing to do with them. Timing. it's about to happen if that we go into this recession. Like if companies are shrinking, there's no growth. On top of that, I've seen internal memos from major companies saying, "You cannot add for raises or headcount without showing us your AI plan." So, moments in time, that's number one. And then the

human has to be self-aware to know that that's what's going on. They got to bunker down. You know what I mean? Number two, uh, lack of self-awareness, which would hurt them on number one, knowing what's going on. Just like some people, like everybody wants to think they're better than they are, which is nice in some ways, but they don't have good uh awareness. Number three, um, they value something the company doesn't. They're like, I'm always on time and Johnny's not. Yeah, Johnny's 15 minutes late, but Johnny's done $18 million in business. He's on 600,000. You

know, I'm uh I'm the biggest. Let's do the reverse. I'm [ __ ] like, this plays out of Vayner in a real way. I'm [ __ ] doing 10 million. Mackenzie's doing 600,000. How did she get promoted? You're a dickshit. And everybody hates you and you're on the verge of getting fired even though you do 10 million. So, people judge what they want the company to value without getting clarity of what the company values. Monster one. Monster. That's like an top of mic drop. Like I think I just changed 37 people's lives that listen on

the first day. They And by the way, that just goes to like real [ __ ] You're not accountable. You're not self-aware. You're not ideological. You're not empathetic. These are all real things. Number four, they um they're poor communicators. They're not communicating well to their bosses. um on what their goals are, what they need, what's the truth, how they see it, so that then the boss can counter. Number five, since it's my favorite number, I'm gonna go right at it because the place they work is [ __ ] up and taking them for granted. That

creates 5B. That means you should quit. Gary, I can't afford to quit. I got rent. No [ __ ] Dick. Go on LinkedIn, hit up recruiters, start actively putting in the work to be able to get out. Number six, they're over reliant on just one mentor. One boss is like, "I got you." But that boss doesn't have all the juice and there's three other bosses. I still have, by the way, you guys know we're doing a May race cycle and an October. You work at a company. I just was in a meeting last week about

this. Somebody walked in and like boom boom. You know, we're doing our planning, talent planning. They're like, "Boom boom. Johnny's number one. Got to get that raise." the other four bosses that are the equals in the different divisions. Like Johnny's the worst. Everyone hates him. So that Johnny in that scenario latched up to Dustin's like Dustin's got me. Dustin told me he's got it. But Dustin is it's not Dustin media. It's [ __ ] Vayner Media. So there's a process. So they misunderstood the game. That's that's the biggest vulnerability there. They didn't grow because they

found one person they thought is going to take care of them, but they kept up the bad behavior overall that the company doesn't value. and somebody had a bigger stick than their boss. Lack of self-awareness, poor communication skills, delusion and ideology that's selfish, non-action, all real [ __ ] This is why I get so pumped. Like this, like I feel like this answer might like help someone realize I ain't doing [ __ ] Like I know someone's watching this and is in this spot and like I don't do any of that [ __ ] That's

what I keep telling you. Like it's on you. You're in charge. So if you're upset, it's your fault. Real talk. Whether and this is like the most three-dimensional chess part of the statement, whether I'm right or wrong. Got it? Like I I get that back to circumstances. There's many things that happen in life that aren't your fault. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying if you focus on what you control under the framework of I it's my fault that I'm not happy because I have options. If I do things that are hard, people don't hear

it. To get into that place, you have to do the things that are hard, not just easy. Something you said, you said most people um think they're better than they are or something. Most better. Most Yeah. Most people Yeah. think that they're better than they are in the frame of it. If they're noticed, I gave you that answer in the context of your question. Gotcha. Why am I not get promoted? Yeah, you're delusional. Or you have a bad judgment engine. Either you're delusional or the company's bad at guessing on talent, but you're in control of

both. But I can tell you in Vayner, it has been some of I love standup comedy. Some of the best standup comedy I've ever heard is from employees telling me why they deserve to get promoted. And everybody loves this. But McKenzie, but Avi, but Mona has nothing to do with you. People think it is everything to do with you. We were used to be the same title. I heard they made more money than me now. Like the company decided the company is humans inherently flawed. Could be wrong. You think they're wrong, get another job or

go and have communication or go listen like get answers. And if you don't like the answer, one thing that I was like that's very clear to me is I know people at Vayner give [ __ ] answers to our employees about why not cuz they're friends with them. I know that cuz I did that my whole life. Lack of cander. This last five, six years, I've been really getting in there and like giving people like works kinder. Back to like the haircut. Not like the [ __ ] are you talking about, Dustin? What about this,

this, this? No, no. Hey, I think these are things you need to work on. This is how I'm judging. Coolest part in our company that I've made huge and this might be good for bosses. every person that's fired at Vayner Media and every promotion and salary increase I sign off on. Obviously, we're so big now like I'm going at the mercy of some of my people now at this level, but I still like keep you know it's a good check and balance of it. But anybody who's less than 100 employees should do that at scale.

Why? It gives a it uh it's almost like the US government. It's good to have Congress, the Senate. Like, by by me being a check to my managers, it gives you, if you know that's true, which it is. Now, you got me and Sid, it gives you a little bit more like you're not like, if you're like, man, I'm just at the mercy of Sid. Me and Sid don't have a good relationship. I'm [ __ ] But if you're like, damn, I I got Gary, too. Or vice versa. Sid can advocate for Gary. Gary doesn't

see me. And if you the more you can add that the better. It gives you the employee the ability to know that you have multiple people that could impact versus being at the mercy of one. Oh no. I meant why why should every company like the why should every owner who has 100 be the sign off on it? That's how you build a great culture. The more it feels like a family business, the better. Even though it's impossible for Coca-Cola to pull that off, but not really. like the Morat the CEO can more more more

and more more it's not scalable even I can't do it now I don't have one-on-one relationships with everyone like I used to at 200 at 300 at 500 I knew [ __ ] like crazy now at 2 plus global it's hard for me to know what's going on in Indonesia it's hard but I keep doing these you know this I keep doing these zooms and off sites and one ons and all hearts and [ __ ] spend 30, you know, I have no minutes right now to spend 30 minutes with the resident interns this way,

last week, you know, just chip it away best I can. Uh, what advice would you give to someone looking to switch careers due to burnout, but without requiring extensive education and they don't have a clear idea of what they want to do? So, you don't have education in it and you don't even know what you want to do. So, you're just miserable in your job and you're looking for advice. Yeah. I mean, burnout is like also been weaponized. I don't know if this person has it or not, but I think we don't even know what

burnout is as a society right now. Like, if you hate your job, you're burnt out. That was treated very differently 20 years ago. You know, for a lot of people, they think of it as a medical condition. For many, it's not, which sucks because then it becomes clouded for who actually has a medical condition. Everybody who's weaponizing burnout from laziness or unhappiness is really [ __ ] it up for people that actually have medical conditions. It's really too bad. Nonetheless, my advice is to do something about it. To take online courses in the evening, like

you have to take action. It's like again if you're unhappy in your job for a lot of people it's um it's similar to like if you've got to get physically fit like that first day in the gym when you've done nothing right for 10 years or 20 years is [ __ ] hard. I I lived it that [ __ ] first day me and Mike make fun of it all the time. I did eight [ __ ] push-ups. Eight. Real talk. Eight [ __ ] push-ups. I had to do this like squat that like burned

my [ __ ] quads. Like it was just like everything was wrong. Like everything. And um it was hard. It was really rough. And that's where this person's in. Like they have to network. They have to get educated. They have to spend hours on the internet being curious to find something that strikes their fancy. They potentially need to get certified. They need to network if they're not going to work on a degree or experience. So, somebody takes a chance on them. They're going to have to ask for favors when they might not want to because

you might need a little helping hand in this moment. And then it goes back to perspective. Some people might be listening right now and be like, "Damn, that sucks." Maybe person's got a job. 800 million people on Earth, no access to clean water. Worse than this guy's situation. Sounds like he's got a better life than 800 million people and I haven't begun. And I have not begun. So yeah, just got to put in work. Like what's my advice? [ __ ] get to work. Don't ask Gary Vee that question. You wasted two minutes. Callie Callie

asks, "When you started building your business, how did you advertise and what did you do to build rapport or trust with your clients?" I mean, there's there's a lot of businesses. I mean, the wine library was one thing. That's retail. It's different. I think she's looking for a service business. What? Vayner Media. I did it by working every day to 4:00 in the morning from 2007 to 2011 to build my own personal brand and was selling a service that I actually did. So, the the respect for several was based in the fact that I actually

did it. 99% of cor Fortune 500 companies didn't care that I got a lot of followers on Twitter. So I gained rapport by having meetings and by 90 people saying no to meetings and three people saying yes then having good meetings. I knew what I was talking about. You know the truth is really an incredible partner in building reputational respect and like validation. So, you know, I think for a lot of people, whether it's being a personal trainer or being my favorite, a life coach or, you know, like all these things, like you've got to

prove to them that you're about it. The way you do that is actually through the conversations. What I mean by that is like just getting meetings and having productive meetings. There's a lot of people who have tried to build agencies like I have who were actually better at getting meetings than me, but the [ __ ] that came out of their mouth in that meeting wasn't compelling. It wasn't right and they didn't build anything. So you know I think f you know using LinkedIn using your social media using your Rolodex a toz in your phone

and asking people networking googling for network events and showing up to them like you're in the sales business. Got to get out there. You're in sales and marketing. All of us are. So that's why I love social and that's why I like real events and networking. That's why I like going to a toz in your phone. may always talk about from Aaron Anderson to Zarly Zachariah like who are the people in your phone right now that can help you grow your business for you asking for a favor or or proposing something everybody if you're not

following me on whatnot live social shopping it's a place where I'm doing commerce tamement which is I'm doing the ask show but I'm intermingling V friends products into it I think it's going to be a whole genre in the next 5 years I think this will end up being another place where I'm ahead where you're doing what you would do in a podcast or YouTube show, but you've also got interstitial commercials for your stuff, similar to old school television. What's going on on whatnot now is more QVC. What I'm talking about is like a whole

different genre of like 1950s television in a lot of ways. Um, so Google Gary be and then space whatnot. W A T N O T one word, you'll find my account. And I'm sure in Google is probably the easiest. Download the app for sure because all of you need to learn live social shopping and follow me and V friends because that's where we usually do the team. That's true. And V friends. Uh actually that's even better. Whatot Google V space whatnot. That's where we do tea with Gary. You could call Dustin. Thank you for saving

me. But follow me too. Are there any good examples of commerce payment that you've seen or you feel like it's just like I feel like I don't really have the example. I feel like in my subconscious I feel like in China that's starting to happen or has happened but I have not really really seen it. I just know it to be true. So if you're looking for an article like I don't know like I'll need you to do research cuz you know I'm like when I do research I do feelings. I don't go deep. But

like if you can go deep please that'll work. Let's get a meeting real should send like 10 or 15 things and be like is this it? Is this it? You know what I mean? I will say this though about live social shopping. This might be a different like the the the hidden upside of live social shopping. There's an entertainment commerce component. Oh commerce tamement. I got one. I believe that people are buying on Tik Tok shop and whatnot as almost a subconscious tip to the person it's on. Oh, I like this person. They made me

laugh. They like this is where they're being entertaining. I have a formatted show with heavy value entertainment similar to this. But I think some people are doing QVC, but they're just good and funny or informational or they already like them. A lot of people come on V friends from my community and just buy something as V friends because they know it's important to me and they're like, "This guy's given me a lot of value through the years. Let me buy something." So, I think just like people tip on Twitch and other platforms, people are buying

things as a subconscious tip, which I think is even more valuable for the end user, the watcher, because they're getting something tangible, whereas on Twitch, they're just literally paying for the content itself. Would Patreon count as commerce statement? Probably not, though. I haven't looked at I mean I think it's we're really talking about true entertainment. Like I think the difference between premium content and what I'm talking about is commerceainment is more like you're selling something physical and the show you're doing it on your this QVC like thing is entertaining enough that's compelling someone to buy

it potentially singularly or highly influenced by the fact that you are uh you're being entertained along with it which is different than you're paying for the premium content. Like if this 2 and 1 half hour or 2 hour whatever it is now hour 45 minute Q&A session was put behind a payw wall and I'm like look I went super deep deeper than I do with my social and it's $4.99. A lot of people would buy that and that's more that model. Yeah. Everybody thank you for watching. If you enjoyed this please hit me up like

crazy. 2129315731. Text me that you like this. DM me you like this and leave comments that you liked it on all of the platforms you listen to. And if you're listening on the podcast, leaving a review for the podcast is something I've been neglecting, especially given this hardcore piece of content I just gave. Hopefully I can guilt you into stopping right now and leaving a review. Uh, your honest review. I mean, I prefer a five star, but if you think this is a three star podcast, leave a three star, but leave a comment uh on

all social, leave a review, subscribe up, all the good stuff. And uh definitely check out V friends and whatnot. We're really I'm literally this is like my favorite. I'm literally building it in front of your face and a lot of you are not part of the journey. If you have somebody under 10 in your life, you should really be part of journey more for what it's going to do for your relationship than even what it's going to do for your collecting value. Uh that's that Mackenzie. Thank you so much. Schleing this car for a long

ride. You're riding right back, right? You're like riding right back. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you. Thanks, Dustin. See you. This is clearly the winning format right now. [Music]