TBT: THE SINGLE BEST EPISODE #ASKGARYVEE HISTORY | From Sep 16, 2016

On this episode, we executed the single best episode in AskGaryVee history.

The energy was just, wait till you see how it ends.

This is the GaryVee audio experience.

Everybody, this is Gary Vay ner chuk and this is episode 2 29 of the AskGaryVee Show.

5 for 5.

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 5, you know what?

When I said Garrett, can you edit it?

Can you or whoever's editing it put a little picture and run it in real time of when Garrett was on episode 26?

Wow.

That's my first episode.

That's your first No, no.

This was I do.

Oh, you, really?

Yeah.

Wait a minute.

You and Garrett are AskGaryVee brother and sister?

I guess so.

Pacing.

Super excited.

It's been a good week of shows.

I feel like, I feel like fresh.

I think that's what happens sometimes and I think I, you know, I love the word cadence.

I think, you know, 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.

I'm 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 and the comments means a lot to me so thank you, India.

Let's get into that show.

1st

one from Ward.

Ward.

Good morning, Gary.

This is Ward from London with one question.

How much of the success of Vaynermedia do you think is down to the brand Gary Vee?

I think Gary Vee might be the best content marketing strategy in history.

So how much of the success of VaynerMedia is down to that?

What if Gary v, the brand, was not there?

And what if Gary v was just running VaynerMedia without producing any Gary Vee content out there?

That's a good question.

Ward, I think the answer is both.

You know, I think I have the luxury of proof being in the pudding.

As a 22 year old in a 5 year period I grew a business from 3 to 65,000,000 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 7 years ago it, 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, Campbell's, the NHL, none of our earliest clients gave a shit about me.

And you know what, 99% of my clients don't now.

Now, that would be naive to not understand that over the half decade that I've been really running the company.

1st 2 years I was somewhat involved sales mentorship with AJM.

I was involved but I'm in full pledge.

This is what I do for a living now.

Gary Vee 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 just the truth is it's because of the GaryVee stuff and so I think the answer is both and I think that's what's really cool.

You know, I think one day people realize how much I like to hedge and I think of it as a hedge.

Like both matter, they help each other.

One's there if the other's not there.

It's kind of a little bit of immigrant in me.

For somebody who's so on the offense I have 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 like unlimited and many people are just unknown assassins.

Met with a guy the other days built $24,000,000 businesses and never heard of a guy 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, you know, individuals.

P.

Diddy's agency is P.

Diddy and the great people that he hired underneath but it it wouldn't have been there until.

Marketing size.

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.

I couldn't go with prime because I got so much to go.

Pre prime.

I like preprime.

I could be wide in here, Demio.

For you.

You got a lot, baby.

Alright.

Is it challenging Sorry.

You can't Wyatt.

Hey, Gary.

David and Wyatt here from Demio and we wanted to ask you a quick question.

Is it challenging for you to make the switch from selling to consumers with wine to selling into 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 the company 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've 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 b2b 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 and I wanted to do some action, I didn't go and like hit up an executive to expand b2b work.

I started looking at what Wine Library was selling and tried to sell wine to people, right?

I still love the speed, the speed in day to day interactions.

As a matter of fact, one of

the things I was just thinking about for our team is that I think I want to start a little shop.

I think we need to sell stuff.

And I don't mean like just Gary Vee 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.

Very cool.

Yeah, I think so too.

Cool.

Nice.

Actually, this is not video.

Woah.

Like a shop.

Like a shop.

The shop has no shop.

So why is VaynerSports different?

Because AJ 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 4 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.

Whereas in the past I've 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 over promised and under delivered.

Not happy for me.

I'm not excited but what I learned was I don't have the bandwidth like, you know, 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, Intermedia in 2 years did 3,000,000 like yeah, I sold those clients but AJ knew how to farm it.

I can do the hunting and then when I decided to do everything and then 3 to 100 happens in a heartbeat, right?

So I think that that's what I'm looking for and I'm trying to understand, there's a lot of people now I trust in here.

I can open a lot of businesses.

But I want to, you know, be smart about this and things of that nature and so that's the difference.

I 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 you need 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.

I think he has to say you're like over here.

Hey, Gary.

Random Slovsky here coming at 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?

How do I connect?

Randy.

I heard it.

I heard it.

Hey, Gary.

Randy.

We're gonna do an experiment here and DRock, by the way, I know other Tyler, other Tyler.

Get in here.

There's a flaw.

Staphon doesn't edit anymore.

But you know what, get Staphon, too.

Staphon.

What's up?

By the way, Staphon's new haircut is legit.

Like Staphon looks way better.

You did, too.

Everybody's been upgrading their hair game.

You look good, man.

I'm proud of you.

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 to think you're perfect, DRock, other Tyler, you've made the flaw.

The amount of times 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 got to be linked up.

Alright, so cool.

That's it.

So like right now when I link up, what's his name again?

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 copy and I get it but we're gonna also flash his handles.

We're gonna flash his handles here at least his Twitter and here's what's gonna happen.

The amount, anybody who's been watching this show for 100 to 200 episodes is a positive and like minded person.

We've got the community for you, Randy.

Instead of giving you something philosophical I'm gonna give you something practical.

VaynerNation, 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 and be like, hey, I mean reach out to him, give him your number, like email, like connect.

Randy, you're gonna 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.

Yay.

You like that?

Hey, Randy.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Last one.

Last one.

Gus.

Gus.

Gary Vee, 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 gonna read.

Let us know 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 it would be a picture with a b on it.

My hat would have a B on it and it would say honey emperor.

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 a $1,000,000,000,000 empire on the way he interacted with his people.

He created a true insular, you know, it's funny.

Once in a while when people first kind of meet me they're like, they're like, and for me like in a good way they're like, Are you building a cult?

You know, like they're like razzing me a little bit but they're actually weird like, like I just really love leadership.

I really love people winning.

Not I love winning and I just genuinely believe that I can win and you can win and like we all have different ambitions and different wants and if one wants to go and then go do their thing, mazel tov go do it.

Go win like shit.

Do you know how interesting it would be for me if somebody left here, if Garrett left here and created G Squared Media and it started beating VaynerMedia and they're like, My God, kudos.

Fuck, I want to kill him but like, you know, like kudos.

Like 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.

Like, like, you know, like, 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, I mean, that's, what do you think this is about?

Like 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.

Like, I found out about you everybody that's working here has been talking about your videos.

I watched it, I'm inspired, I'm going to do my own thing.

I can make money, I can get fame in a lot of, I could've did a TV show like, I could've been on Top Chef back in the wine day.

It was the number one fucking show on TV.

I could've been famous then.

I've been way more famous than I am right now 8 years later.

Legacy, changing the game.

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 because that's good.

That's just good for all of us.

You know what you have to sell now to the team, right?

Honey?

Like honey, can we call honey empire?

We're just gonna sell honey, right?

If you own a honey farm, let us know because I'll JV and we'll like maybe our first product should be honey.

You might be India.

That was a good Yeah.

I'm sorry.

I think we're just gonna sell honey on Shopify.

Just like honey.

Do you think we can do a 1,000,000 rev the 1st year?

I think we get, 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 Yeah.

It's a 28, like I feel like if there's a, by the way, you want to talk about a good piece of content for Facebook or whatever it is in 4 years?

This clip with the interview I do with Fast Company explaining how we, why and how we built a $50,000,000 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.

Poured Shop.

Yeah, we didn't do the Poured Shop because Stonwin failed.

Yes, I will not fail.

Dunk, you're out of 2.

I want to put 2 people's pressure.

Alright, Doug.

We're starting a hunting 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 sailing tomorrow.

The hustle starts early.

You keep asking questions.

I'll keep answering.