Today's episode is a fireside chat I had with VaynerMedia residents, I answer a bunch of questions about what success looks like for someone in a junior position at Vayner, how do I keep myself from burning out juggling an everchanging ecosystem, advice for people in their 30s and have kids trying to exponentially grow their career and much more! Hope you enjoy!
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Keynotes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vCDlmhRmBo&list=PLfA33-E9P7FCEF1izpctGGoak841XYzrJ
NFTs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwMJ6bScB2s&list=PLfA33-E9P7FAcvsVSFqzSuJhHu3SkW2Ma
Business Meetings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wILI_VV6z4Y&list=PLfA33-E9P7FCTIY62wkqZ-E1cwpc2hxBJ
Gary Vaynerchuk Original Films: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfA33-E9P7FAvnrOcgy4MvIcCXxoyjuku
Trash Talk: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfA33-E9P7FDelN4bXFgtJuczC9HHmm2-
WeeklyVee: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfA33-E9P7FBPjdQcF6uedz9fdk8XKn-b
Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur, and serves as the Chairman of VaynerX, the CEO of VaynerMedia and the Creator & CEO of VeeFriends.
Gary is considered one of the leading global minds on what’s next in culture, relevance and the internet. Known as “GaryVee” he is described as one of the most forward thinkers in business – he acutely recognizes trends and patterns early to help others understand how these shifts impact markets and consumer behavior. Whether its emerging artists, esports, NFT investing or digital communications, Gary understands how to bring brand relevance to the forefront. He is a prolific angel investor with early investments in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, Snapchat, Coinbase and Uber.
Gary is an entrepreneur at heart — he builds businesses. Today, he helps Fortune 1000 brands leverage consumer attention through his full service advertising agency, VaynerMedia which has offices in NY, LA, London, Mexico City, LATAM and Singapore. VaynerMedia is part of the VaynerX holding company which also includes VaynerProductions, VaynerNFT, Gallery Media Group, The Sasha Group, Tracer, VaynerSpeakers, VaynerTalent, and VaynerCommerce. Gary is also the Co-Founder of VaynerSports, Resy and Empathy Wines. Gary guided both Resy and Empathy to successful exits — both were sold respectively to American Express and Constellation Brands. He’s also a Board Member at Candy Digital, Co-Founder of VCR Group, Co-Founder of ArtOfficial, and Creator & CEO of VeeFriends. Gary was recently named to the Fortune list of the Top 50 Influential people in the NFT industry.
In addition to running multiple businesses, Gary documents his life daily as a CEO through his social media channels which has more than 34 million followers and garnishes over 272 million monthly impressions/views across all platforms. His podcast ‘The GaryVee Audio Experience’ ranks among the top podcasts globally. He is a five-time New York Times Best-Selling Author and one of the most highly sought after public speakers.
Gary serves on the board of MikMak, Bojangles Restaurants, and Pencils of Promise. He is also a longtime Well Member of Charity:Water.

What is your greatest advice for us outside of our careers to fight for happiness, People do not fight for happiness. Enough people have decided to lean into cynicism and to blame and to Envy into jealousy. History, media, Social media, pessimism like people are selling all of you. A bunch of the world has never been better.

The world has never been better. Period. This is the greatest era to ever be alive. I Would switch with all of you in 10 seconds and unfortunately that's not what people think.

So my advice to you is to fight for happiness. Try to understand why I'm telling you that, go look at facts instead of headlines that are built to scare you a badass. Bulldog I Want to know more? Is it a meme character and then is Vayner Sports Getting into U.S Soccer The inner Sports has thought a lot about getting into uh, representing female soccer players in the female soccer league it's been. it's been a station so that's that we have not talked as much about.

MSL MLS excuse me, we've but we've talked about English Premier League and going global. so a lot of conversation on proper football at Vayner sports. but I think if I had a guest basketball is going to happen before that so it could be three, four five years. um badass.

Bulldog You know truth is I'm spending a lot of time right now on character development you know I've always hot take I've had it skewed towards Meme and like fun stuff but as the word badass now is like more mundane like I feel I can do a badass Bulldog toy for six years old six-year-olds and it's not like a bad word and so a lot a lot to think through. Bulldogs are incredibly globally popular and so I want to be very thoughtful with that character and its development. you know, be friends. For me is my Pokemon my Sesame Street my my Marvel my Star Wars And character development is probably the most precious part of all that.

And so given a lot of thought and my question is, what is your walkout song Just Gonna know who you are and if you thought of that, um yeah. the only one that I've ever really used consistently for my Keynotes has been first of the month by Bone Thugs and Harmony um mainly because it's a song I once listened to 853 times in a row and it gets me pumped. It also is like a really kind of like rugged Hustle song it's like so there's always just been a very like from the dirt kind of part of it. Plus I've always loved that like 93 of the world has no idea what the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are saying in their songs.

so it was felt like I was on an inside like club and actually knowing it. So I would go with first of the month by Bone Thugs and Harmony honestly I love that. But yeah man, you talk a lot about um being the guy that you wish you had as a kid. Um, and what would you say to yourself if you were a resident right now? like going through the program just starting out at Vayner um from Ireland Obviously you know I get it I Have a real real thought on this because I know it's what I would do I know myself I Couldn't recommend all of you becoming friends with all of you more.
We're going to teach you a fuckload. I'm gonna be who I am but your relationships with each other going through this is everything. All of you are going to be so far ahead in the in the world of business and marketing because you're coming up Vayner at a time where vayner's like Apple in 1986 like you're on it, you're at Facebook in 2010. You're like a Tesla 12 like you know those are much bigger companies than we will ever be, but we are disrupting and are historically correct about advertising.

There are literally people on this call right now who in 21 years are going to be the CMO of Coca-Cola literally and so like what would I tell myself or what would I be thinking that I need to make sure that I get everyone's LinkedIn Instagram Tick Tock Email from this group and go out of my way to be friends with everybody on slack and create common ground with them around upbringing interests like at all costs at all costs. There's nothing more valuable that will happen at Boehner than you taking advantage of. You guys and gals are part of this little micro crew and that makes you connected in a different way and that all of you are coming into a company that is going to accelerate your opportunities Whether within it, there are literally people in here that are gonna be the bosses of people in here and by being friends, it's going to be just a much more enjoyable life in three years. There's also people here in 19 years who again are going to be CMOS of the biggest companies in the world that may help your child get an internship at that like this is it.

What is your greatest advice for us outside of our careers to fight for happiness. People do not fight for happiness enough. People have decided to lean into cynicism into blame into Envy into jealousy. People really like the world has done a really good number on the world.

Mainstream media, social media pessimism like people are selling all of you a bunch of the world has never been better. The world has never been better. Period. This is the greatest era to ever be alive.

I would switch with all of you in 10 seconds and unfortunately that's not what people think. So my advice to you is to fight for happiness. Try to understand why I'm telling you that, go look at facts instead of headlines that are built to scare you. Uh, as Agen's year, we kind of grew up with the social media boom.

Yep and uh, we kind of understand the consumer of mentality and the social media first mentality. Yes, So my question is is how did you come up with that before or like understand that disruption before any of us understood it. So one of the advantages of being older is timing. So when Myspace and even before that Friendster came when I was Myspace was very clear to me in 2005.

how old were you in 2005? Six Beautiful. So when you were in kindergarten trying to desperately like figure out what the world is I was sitting in a liquor store desperately trying to figure out like why is the internet changing and what is this and this feels different this is different. This is not the last 10 years this has something to it and like look how cool like oh wait Rick Ross and and Dane Cook the comedian and Tila Tequila the model. um like they're winning on this thing.
There's something happening and so I took very big no and then very quickly YouTube Twitter and Facebook came out and I was like okay, something's up and then right then and they are right behind that The iPhone came out and I was like okay this is a series of things that make sense to me and the radio used to be the most important thing and then the television was invented and the television only used to have three channels and then I had 13 and then at 36 and then it had DirecTV. This makes sense to me and so I followed my intuition. But and this is important for all of you with AI VR Nfts Not only did I have intuition, I immersed myself in it. So I was 31.

30 when I made my first video and I made a video tasting wine because it's what I knew um and so I just put myself out there and made sure I tasted it and was a practitioner you can only learn by doing. you can't talk about it in theory and so you know I think I have good consumer intuition and I have good willingness to become a practitioner and so it was obvious to me because I was in it. you know? Yep, that totally makes sense. And so like all of you can read the emails going back and forth at the company about Ai and chat GPT and Jasper and mid Journey or you could go and use it right? Thank you so much thank you! Um my question for you was what does success look like for someone in a junior position at Vayner Well I think success is very different.

Money for all of you right? Like some of you were built in a very Alpha home where like and very good at school and type A and youth and you you'll deem success as getting promoted right, getting the full gig and then getting promoted like and I Understand that for other people, success has some sort of financial number in their mind, right? Some people here have like a specific number in mind. if I get to a hundred thousand, if I get to a 500, 000, if I get to a million, that's fine. You know for me, success is actually truly waking up on a Monday morning and smiling with no anxiety in your chest. and whether you make forty thousand dollars or four billion dollars that anything in between.

Boy oh boy. if more people woke up on Monday morning smiling cheek to cheek with lack of anxiety in their chest, the world would be epic. And that is the framework that I'm trying to create. That's what this is.

That's why all of you reacted the way you did when Claude came on here. You know, like we're putting a lot of effort into that and so we won't get it perfect. But we're trying our hardest and so success for me is whatever you want success to be. you know what I mean and and I'm there's some of you sitting here right now that want my job and very honestly I'd like one of you to be the global CEO of the Soul holding company because I I'm getting old I need one of you to rise up and take this throne and so that's great.
And then there's other people who've realized and can look around the company and say whoa, that person looks happy and whoa. They work nine to five five days a week and have time for their kids and everything like I want that and that's beautiful and so like or some of you are coming here to like, get as much knowledge as possible and then you're gonna jump and start your own vaynermedia and that makes me happy for you too. Like I want success to be your success but I want your success to be your success. Not what I deem success not what your mama deemed success, not whatever's cool on Tick Tock team's success like figure out what the your success is and be ready for it to change what you get.

The about at 22 changes at 27 and 31 and 39 and 52. so you may have a success in your mind right now and then you might scratch that itch and you might realize I don't like it that much you know and don't be disappointed by that because a lot of people get depressed when they reach something they no, no, be invigorated by that and realize you're on to your next success. Thank you. You're welcome.

So my question is, you know obviously everything the the Vayner kind of like family of companies encompasses. you know, like the social landscape, the media landscape, the ads landscape. they're all constantly fluctuating, constantly changing. So you know it can kind of be a lot sometimes to like take it all in at once.

So my question is, how do you prevent yourself from you know, like getting burnt down from it all. What do you do to kind of like keep the pace with all this stuff I Love myself. Let me explain I Don't judge myself when I don't feel like I've got it all grasped. You're absolutely right.

The shit's moving super fast. It's okay to not be great at knowing how Snapchat works. It's right if you've never downloaded Pinterest It's cool if you have no clue what the going on on LinkedIn you just keep trying every day. I Think the biggest reason I don't get burnt out is because I don't beat myself up.

By far one of the biggest issues that so many people have. young old. Left Right black white is people beat themselves up. and by the way, do not get it twisted.

I'm not talking about not holding yourself up to a standard, but it's just a little patience. Back to the earlier question: I've been doing this every day for 17 years. Good at it. Now some of you have never thought about these Platforms in this context prior to when you started here.
you're using it to hook up, you know? So like you know I just have empathy for yourself, right? That's how you try. You try and you really like and I think you sense it here, like we have ambition. we're building a honey Empire But like we're gonna give you a lot of time as long as you're trying. You know what advice do you have? Uh, for someone who's about to turn 30 who has two young kids and they're trying to like, exponentially grow their professional career in this space by realizing that patience is your only Ally when it seems like it's your biggest foe gotcha right? Like the problem when you're trying to do something fast because of circumstances, right, Imagine right, You're part of this residency class 90 of your contemporaries or kids right out of school.

That's a framework where immediately you're like I'm so behind that all that whatever's going through your mind. The problem is when you're trying to speed it up like you trip. Yeah, the faster the you run, the more likely you're gonna trip. And so it's about the discipline of understanding.

First of all, I'm so pumped you're in this program. I've had two or three people that I've spoken to in the last six months who had similar situations where they were quote unquote a different age from the majority of people in The Residency class who 18 months later really were like oh, wait a minute I didn't have to rush. This was exactly right. Um, and uh, you know patience is your ally in this brother.

Like the Merit of your work is going to be the variable of your success, not how fast you politic it. It's awesome. Thank you. You got it brother.

How did you get to a point where you can trust your creators to just say Hey look make what you want because I've worked for teams in other media companies where I had no Creator freedom I just do it and shut up and just do it. And what I can appreciate is I can just kind of give my passion in what is sports I wanted to build a good company I'd rather grown slower on something that I knew would bring value to my employees than grow faster with something that sucks really hard to get people to wake up on Monday morning smiling and having no anxiety in their chest. if everyone's just making with no say that's soulless and not fun. Yeah, yeah.

totally thank you. Appreciate it. You're welcome brother. My question for you is uh, going back to Taylor Is that how do you wake up early in the morning on a Monday and to stay hungry? you know? Um, I'm 27 and I'm trying to keep myself going every day and I kind of struggle sometimes.

So what is your take on that? What do you struggle with brother I think just being motivated to get to my angle. You know what's your end goal. Honestly, six figures have a big house. I'm being a little materialistic, but well, that's what.

that's why you're struggling. Yeah I mean I would have bet the I mean you couldn't have walked into that more that if I paid you to say what you just said, you're literally the hypothesis I have of why people are unhappy. You just made up an arbitrary goal for yourself based on material things without realizing The second you walk into that home and you make six figures. nothing's changed.
You know, have someone be honest with me. You know. So I'm I'm even better brother I'm telling you from the deepest levels of love that you can even imagine I know you I've met a thousand of you. All of them have lost the second they got there.

you're you've got. You've been able to turn your perspective to something that's very easy to turn your perspective to. The world is very good at selling this. It's just super not true bro.

I Appreciate it, thank you and kind of go in adding to that like like what? like what should we do you know or like yeah I mean I think I I The alternative to that is focusing on doing things you like I Wanted to say from the lemonade stand to the winery to now successful entrepreneurships both serial successful entrepreneurships. what do you think is like a singular thread that you pulled through from the beginning that you still have now that makes you that makes you successful that I reverse engineer the person I'm trying to sell something to and I come from it from a place of good intent like I really tried to make good lemonade for 10 cents like when people came to my dad's liquor store and they wanted Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio which used to sell for 12.99 and once I knew my and knew there was a better Pinot Grigio named Chris Kris peanut Regional for 7.99 I fought like hell to get them to try it because I knew they'd get a better bottle of wine for five dollars less. Vayner is a success because we're trying to get people to stop wasting money on dumb marketing and spend it on good marketing When you have the customer's intention in mind, everything you want selfishly will be there in the end. So I've spent like I'm 25 and I've had a little bit of work experience and it could be research and then I try to switch to strategic Consulting then I switched to like supply chain and then Farmhouse and now I'm here thinking that this is what I need and I think a lot of the reason behind that is because I had it took me like four or five years to accept that I am someone who likes to put themselves in a completely random situation every two years and that's Foreigner X So my question to you is like, as someone who's just starting out, how do I moderate the line between specializing in something right now within vaynermedia and maybe going for those opportunities later to explore analytics brackets within the other companies within the interacts? Uh, would I get that opportunity to kind of explore that a little bit or get inside in me? I Love that question.
Look, there's there's It's very hard to answer that question because there's so much Serendipity that goes into that. But the fact that you can speak to this question the way you just did, as long as you're over communicating with pet and all your kind of like Champions that you interact with the Kalins Um, you know, whoever you work with on these projects, um I think you'll find yourself in a very good place. What? I'm most proud of. Like we're not bound to what I think most agencies and companies are.

We're not rigid, we're not type A And so this is all about communication and sometimes you should stay and sometimes you shouldn't but not me, not you only God knows if that would have worked out I Think what you can't be is crippled by the decisions you make. Don't think that you're being Brash or things of that nature or too fast. You're just following what feels right in your stomach. and maybe you'll do a couple things at Boehner X and then the third thing, you're like, wait a minute, this is it and you might do that for five years.

and then five years in one day you're like this is not it anymore and that's fine too. So I would just continue to communicate. Um, take feedback. Balance that from people who might say you're moving too quick.

Stay another year, try this for another six months, make decisions, live in on those decisions, and just keep navigating great. Thank you I Guess like I Feel like from past experiences I Feel like there's slight negative connotation to this. Like I've been badgered by interviewers like why do you stretch all the time? Tell them the truth? Yeah, Tell them you're curious, Tell them you're you're trying to find something that will fulfill you I Promise you you don't want to work anywhere that use that as a negative anyway. yeah, exactly okay.

thank you so much I have a funny feeling that wasn't a big issue at Boehner Yeah, definitely that's what. That's what makes me want to ask you this question and it's a really difficult question to ask to anyone else to be honest. So yeah I mean I think it's a very normal um track for the curious and haven't found that home yet. I Noticed you know you have so much on your plate as far as like all the hats you wear with every company that you started or or are a part of.

currently what keeps you passionate to keep going when you have so much going on only asking because I don't have as much as you but I have like organizations I'm president of and I sometimes feel myself kind of like not being passionate to give my all to every role that I'm in. So I just wanted to know like what keeps you passionate in every role um, accountability sometimes to do things that you know I think one of the things that the world is struggling with is being able to deal with inconvenience. I think it's a real issue I think it's a real opportunity. We've been programmed parented.
We've been fortunate in a lot of ways in the Macro. Obviously, many of us can grow up with difficult situations, but we've demonized the capacity to be inconvenienced. And when I make a commitment even though I hate going to that meeting or I don't want to do it I've I've learned how to tolerate short term or midterm inconvenience. That's number one, number two.

I'm also very comfortable. Similar to the last question of changing my mind, it's okay to unwind a commitment as long as you do it graciously. You could walk into the next meeting and say hey, I need to I need to resign at the end of this year from this committee I Just want to give everyone nine months now. You've created a light at the end of the tunnel, which almost weirdly makes you even better Those nine months you know what I mean you know I'd rather you be great on my board for nine months or committee than be below average for three years.

Um so I think it's a balance of willing to deal with inconvenience and also willing to graciously change your mind. Both of those things keep me passionate I know there's an out if I do it graciously and appropriately and I know that sometimes I have to sleep in the bed that I made. Thank you, you're welcome. Uh, my question for you is you know, obviously being in this program just for like, what like a little over a month Um, so far I've just been able to see that like obviously there's a lot of like love and care directed towards us and directed towards teaching us and kind of guiding us uh, along our way.

and so my question for you is just like frankly, like, why do you? why do you care so much about like us and like younger people and why do you guys see us as such an investment? Uh, going forward I think it's the right thing to do You know I think when you are blessed, there's a sense of responsibility and I think you know so many of my business big big boy, big girlfriends laugh at the concept of how much we put in an upfront on this and how vulnerable we are for people leaving. and I just don't see it that way I Know, you know I think we have the best culture in the world. so I think a lot of people will stay so that's good for the business. but even if people didn't stay, we can afford to do it.

It's a nice thing to do. it leaves a positive impact on the business world. I Want more people to be affected by the way we see business and I feel great that we get to show you how it should be. You don't have a CL when I tell you the greatest thing of this whole program for all of you is knowing this exists.

You know many people work for 25 years and have no idea that you can do it right. You know many of your parents and friends and relatives and friends at school and cousins think you're completely full of when you talk about this company and that you're just drinking from some weird Kool-Aid that I made up, you know? Um, it's just the right thing to do bro. you know it's awesome I Love that. Yeah, appreciate it.
I Believe yeah and it goes back to the thing I said earlier Luke which is like when you do the right thing by the other side, all the things that you want will happen. I call it 5149. If I give all of you 51 of the value then then 49 will be just fine by me. And I think too many companies try to get somewhere between 80 and 100 of the value and once you figure out the model for 49, you're good.

You know? Yeah, that's great I appreciate that. Thank you anyway I Love you all. Hope this was fruitful. Hope it helped.

Always available. Yeah, Thanks everyone. You're welcome Cheers everyone! Thank you Thank you love you thank you that was tight. that was sick.

That was amazing. Best meeting Ever! No for real I Feel rejuvenated I Feel reassured. it's good. Okay me too.

Okay bye guys, that's all you know. My favorite thing to do is make pretend I leave to listen to what actually is being said and I can tell you right now that felt amazing I really did not log off because I was like let me let me I Love you guys! Love you guys! Have a great great day! Cheers Bye-bye everyone! Love you Foreign.

14 thoughts on “This is the greatest era to be alive”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Alexandru Dragan says:

    Ha ha he comments in the end. Good conclusion.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Kamil Kravt says:

    We haven't been so close to another world war for long time and the more and more young people have cancer so not sure about it

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Andix Ideas says:

    Great video, pack with info, thanks Gary! <3

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Hecz says:

    I hope Gary starts uploading in 4K. It woudln't hurt. It don't make sense if they're recording in 4K but uploading 1080p

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars A.O. Hamer - The Artist says:

    I would have freaked out knowing you were still on the call 🤣 It's so inspiring to know that this type of business culture is possible. Thank you Gary 👑

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ruthless-Rob says:

    @majorleaguerugby

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mike Johnson says:

    Tila Tequila the model LMFAO

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Soothing Finance says:

    The team LOVES Gary. An inspiration to see such a leader during our time.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dewa Debadon says:

    💯😎👍

    Daily Positivity Energy! Thanks Gary!

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars tarik mokafih says:

    Not true, the best era to be alive in is from 1980 to 2005. and that's based on many indicators, such as world peace, economy growth, life expectancy growth, safety …
    This Era can not be compared to the Era of world wars or to medieval ages indeed, but human civilization is in a decline phase and the rate of decline is speeding up, now we are at one huge event away from a world war.

    Yes, we have no other choice than keep hope and optimism, but not be delusional, since we must also pay attention to the new threats and risks surrounding us and do our best to live the best possible life within the actual constraints.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Sara Stilleke - Peak Performance says:

    Great advice, this really is the greatest era ever! I admire your energy and enthusiasm on so many different topics!

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Richaroo says:

    Maybe for the rich and attractive people it is.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Keith says:

    30 days before Creepy Joe Biden starts a nuclear war to hide all and his political friends pedo trading and killings. It's the greatest era to be alive man!

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars David Popa says:

    Love what you’re doing man thanks!

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