Gary Vee

best selling author, and so much more. And we go through a lot. We talk about the importance of letting the people you hired do their jobs. We talk about why you're branding will always outpace your sales, and we talked about how to build a business empire using social media because obviously we've got to go through that with Gary, that's what he's known for, That's how he built such an amazing, amazing, amazing platform. So let's get into it.

Welcome to another episode. Today is a very very special day because I'm sitting down with one of my favorite people, a huge influences to why I'm even here talking to you right now, a media mogul, investor, multi time New York Times best selling author, Gary Vaynerchuk. And there really isn't a whole lot that this guy hasn't done. He is a leading entrepreneur, he is an angel investor, he's

chairman of Ainner Acts, he's CEO of Ayner Media. There's probably fifteen thousand other things that he's done during quarantine and probably this morning already. He's one of the most innovative and influential people in the world. Welcome Gary v. How you doing, man, I'm doing extremely well. It's really good to be here with you. Ryanan. I hope you're super well and I'm excited to get into it. Yeah. Man, So this is your fault, just to let you know, right.

I don't know if people say that to you all the time, but I remember a couple of years ago when we were having breakfast, yeah, at the Mercer Hotel, and you pointed to the cameras and everybody, and you said, this is what's going to happen, right, and it's gonna be everybody and now here it is. Yeah, you know, I think, um, so many of the nice things you set up front, I had. I have done some things

this morning. I had a meeting with my Singapore office this morning, and I was talking to an employee who's just joined, and I said, you know, I have a very very very narrow super skill surrounded by other skills, competencies solid we all have, you know, kind of like different ladders done, like what we're good at and what we're bad at. But I do have a great intuition around what people are going to do and where attention is.

It's really interesting to talk to you. I actually use the analogy of real estate development a lot in my own head and kind of sometimes in public, which is I almost trade attention the way a great real estate

developer real estate agent trades neighborhoods. You know, I'm able to see something and say, oh, not guessing, not long term twenty nine years from now, oh in the next thirty six to forty eight months, quote unquote, this neighborhood is about to turn, or this neighborhood is about to develop. And sometimes that neighborhood is podcasting, and sometimes that neighborhood

is TikTok, and sometimes that neighborhood is Facebook. And then by the way, the reverse, you know, this is something you know and probably a lot of people in the audience, but I know your audience is broad. Like mind. Sometimes the neighborhood goes from super hot to not as hot. You know, Facebook ten years ago was the hottest thing for twenty four year old to be on and now it is really sixty seventy eight year old behavior. Those are the conversations I have every day with developers trying

to predict the future. Right, where do we invest now? And it's not just our attention, right, it's a significant amount of money. So where do we put our dollars and where's the market going to be? And that's that's the issue with the real estate market we have right now, and by the way, it's the issue with what I do for a living. The reasons so many people struggle with content building brand, both as a human or as

a business, is it is money too. Just because you decide that you're going to go all in on TikTok, you have to spend money, whether it's adds, whether it's people producing the content, whether it's your own time that becomes valuable. I think one of the challenges for individuals like yourself who are successful at the point of that

breakfast at the mercer hotel. Is that it takes a real fight commitment because you were now allocating hours doing this that used to be analyzing data around the neighborhood, showing something, recruiting someone building a relately. I know it. I mean I run a lot of businesses, Yet there is times when I'm writing a book speaking on stage. How do you justify the time between Gary Vynerchuk the CEO and Gary V the celebrity that everybody knows, Like, how are you? How are you even here right now

doing this time? If you have all of these people in Singapore all over the world, easy brand always outpaces sales. You know this. I mean you've lived in It's been the ark of your life. So I really believe in brand, and I think I also believe in karma. I like you intuitively from the when we met. We haven't had the luxury because we're both busy to spend like the kind of time that makes me say, oh my god, I fully know this person that you know, but I

always have good feelings towards it. I believe in Karmen doing good things, like when you asked me to be on the show. I want to get some people that have never heard of me or here's something new for me on this podcast that are in your world. I want to do it for you because I know a lot of people find wherever I am on the internet that's good for you. I'm so fascinated by people's ability to be so narrow on just transactional. I have to do this. This makes me money. Now, this is more

valuable than anything else. That's wild. I actually think it's the third most valuable to building brand and to building karma, serendipity, just living life. How do you structure your day? Though, as totally logistical question as we kind of get into this, you have a family, you know, you live in patent, You run these businesses. How many assistance do you have who structures your calendar? How do you know is every day completely different? How do you structure your goals going

into the year? Walk me through that process. I have two full time admins just for me, so Alexandra and Lou are incredible there. Oh, it's always on business, you know, which is to the young kids. I have the luxury at this point in my career. Two of my former assistance and interns went on to be my partner's and Empathy wines and a couple of months ago we sold that company to Constellation and those guys became millionaires. And my other assistance are in my ecosystem and doing extremely well.

So you know, being my admin it's really hard, I think, because it's kind of it's always on its stress. There's just a lot going on. However, it's an incredible springboard to a career. A lot of people into colonel or

next early. We're always trying to get that job. But even though I know it's a springboard, I'm still uncomfortably appreciative every time somebody holds that role because I know that for some I'm on actively on usually for twelve, thirteen, fourteen hours in a day, and then the inbox and things are happening twenty four hours a day London, Singapore, you know, just my life. So it's a it's a high intensity job. So I have those two and they

cover my inbox and my calendar. When you texted me yesterday, you could have paid billion dollars. I wouldn't have known that we're doing this today. I only know what I'm doing the morning I wake up and look at my calendar. For the first time, you start running and I just go I know that you know we had the exchange and I was and I said yes, and I couldn't wait to do it. But whether it was January seven or February nineteen, I would have no clue until the morning. Then.

I have a chief of staff, Marcus Krasas, that has been with me for ten years, eleven years. He is really far more my right hand within the vainer X ecosystem, I would say Marcus and my two admins are the actual infrastructure, and my calendar is my boss. I say

yes and no to things, for example tips. Something I implemented a year ago which has been game changing is I'll have an hour meeting with Marcus, my chief staff, and my two admins today and we will look at every single meeting next week and we will do things like at the time because what we used to rely on is my decision. But the problem is sometimes something that I said, hey, let's do this for thirty now

needs fifteen now doesn't need to happen at all. So how do you then deal with Because you're the guy right the company is is your name, You're the guy people know you, and you spend so much time focused on brand how do you deal with founder dependency. I know you have great people around you and you promote from within, but how is gary multiply excremities on both sides.

Let me explain. If you were to private investigate my organization, everybody listening would be on the ground how stunned they would be on how much I don't give a shit about and I'm completely uninvolved in. You get freedom, you get freedom to the people you hire again at a level that would supprise Like I mean it. I spend very little time with my CFO. There's things that I just delegate. Trust, show me that you're not the guy or girl, and then I'll make a decision on training

you up or firing you. That's my responsibility. It's the extreme lack of micromanagement on one side. On and then I'm very involved in molding and touching, whether that's winning new business, whether that's innovating new products and services, whether that's global expansion, whether that's strategic m and A. I don't play in the middle, which I think a lot of founders do. They're in things they don't need to be injure out of insecurity or ego. I focus uncomfortably

on growth. Now. I had a moment that I called counting the bananas on March twenty, which is, oh shit, here's COVID. Oh shit, I just got four emails from our humongous clients saying, yeah, we're not gonna pay you as fast anymore. We're not a very big company compared to Chase the Budweiser, so we have no leverage, I have overheads. Oh my god, is this stimulus thing going to play out the way I think, which is people you know, less revenue and way more revenue're gonna get checks.

So we're not sure enough. That's what happened. We didn't get a penny, and so I'm like, I've got to navigate this, which makes me go into complete defense mode. So literally, for two weeks, I'm literally literally, I knew how much we were spending on snacks in the l A office, whereas two weeks earlier I couldn't tell you what we were spending on our leases, let alone the snacks. Right, So I'm very I'm very good at a couple of things. One never putting myself in a massive vulnerability where I'll

go out of business. So in the macro, I still have an incredible sense of what the reality of the business is. Are b when I have to switch and adjust to new information. I'm not ideological and say, well you guys and girls take care of this. You're in the details of defense. I go directly into hands dirty because I'm an operator by nature, and so that's how

I kind of think about the world. So interesting talking to you now, even compared to the last couple of years, right, I feel like when I first met you, you know everything. Now you know even more, and I think you know are great. Here's I want great way earlier than you did. Man, But you have a very handsome face, so you've been able to pull it off for a long time. I think, doesn't it blow you away? Ryan? Everybody's listening, and I know there's a lot of winning operators, and winning comes

in all different scales. I'm just gonna pose this question. I know a lot of people while they're running, while they're driving, while they're walking their dog, listening to this. It is just amazing. When you're a winning player, how much better you are twenty years later, fifteen years later, ten years later. Like I was a WHISKI I took my dad's liquor store business from a three to a sixty million dollar business in my early twenties. That's just facts.

So I knew I had that in me because I've been doing the business stuff since I was six, and at fourteen eighteen, I really figured it out with sports cards, and I knew I had it in me. Yet I came into that business with Kobe Bryant like Bravado and pulled it off. Yet I cannot believe how the forty five year old me would run circles around that twenty five year old like circles. And that's called experience. And so to your point, you're right, because so much of

your life is also very very public. What's something that people do not know about you? Anything in my personal life? Made that decision? It kind of I'd be lying if I said there was some big decision. It's just you know what I actually think The answer is. Actually, I'll give you the answer. I was born in the Soviet Union, and I was raised in a household that overly valued personal privacy. The end my parents grew up the society where people rant it on each other and people went

to jail. I wish Americans really knew what communism and socialism really was. There is such a naive but especially in the current political climate, paying higher taxes and you know, having universal healthcare or university is not what my parents lived in. You're talking about my great it's really ironic that we went here. I don't talk about this a lot. I literally posted one minute before we went here on my Instagram. I'm gonna show you and I literally literally

I've never done this. Is never have done this. Posted a picture both my grandfather's and my great grandfather. I never met my dad's dad. He died when my dad was fifteen, as you can see by this picture. I did meet my mom's dad, but I was too and I never I don't remember him, and I didn't know my great grandfather, who came to America with us, immigrated in his seventies. I recall him a little bit, but

he also died when I was five. But both of my grandfather's spent time in jail, including my mom's dad spending ten or twelve ryan for doing entrepreneurial stuff on the side, which, oh, by the way, every human in Russia did, because that's what happens in communism. Speak to anybody in Venezuela, Cuba or Russia that lived in it.

I think that's one factor. I also think I'm good at predicting, and I think that people have come to learn that when you exploit your children or tell everybody everything about your business, it might be fun for a couple of likes on Instagram at the time, but it comes with enormous amounts of baggage and stresses. And so I think we have you know as as you know my family as well. Right we we people know us because of a reality television show that focuses more in

our personal life than it does our actual work. But we made a decision a while ago that due to business, I sell a significant amount of real estate because of what people know about my family. Because they know me. For you, and everyone has their own situations, you felt like the trade could work itself out. And that's amazing.

And by the way, for everybody listening who's posting pictures of their babies or doing the social media a version of a reality show that you lived through, because a lot of people are as you know, it's okay to do it when it works for you. It's okay to change your mind. I'll tell you another thing when we

touched on it. I do not think because of the Gary B persona and most of the content this podcast speeches, which is a different version of me than the operator, I don't think people really understand me as a businessman. For example, in fifteen months, I've created a nine figure exit for a direct consumer wine brand. Some solid amount of my audience knows. Almost nobody outside of my audience knows I co founded, co created, funded something called Rezzie.

When the most successful restaurant app that has come out since Open Table, we exited that in a full cash deal hefty nine figures to American Express. Not on my resume when the Gary B name gets brought up. So I think my persona and personality probably similar to the way you feel as a quote unquote reality star who's actually a real professional. I think the thing that most people don't know is vain or X holding company. If I ever sell, it is going to be a billion

dollar exit on a bad day. I don't think people have calibrated my business success and acuum. I don't like talking about being smart or being good at business. I like talking about, Hey, do you see this opportunity and you understand why you're not taking it. It's usually tied into insecurity or internal things. So a focus on that and be Once you focus on that, you have to

make content on these things. It's going to you just articulated that awareness to you has led to success currently it's professional success as you evolved, and this is my intuition about you. It may be around the social issues you care about, the nonprofits you want to support, the disease that takes someone that you love to curate. Political aspirate, who the heck you're You're a young man for me, that's what I want everybody understand. You don't need Bravo's

co sign. There's something called TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, in perpetuity. It's called the Internet. You will play out this way, take advantage of it because you can then get happier. Walk me through empathy, wines quickly, the idea, the building, what it became. It's a great question. It's my life's work. I learned about wine when I was fourteen. I would sit behind the register of Shoppers Discount Liquors in Springfield Millburn, New Jersey, and I would read The Wine Spectator and

Robert Parker for two or three four hours. I would read The wind Spectator in high school. So in a lot of ways, it's my life's work. In a lot of ways, it took twenty one months to create a nine figure exit. But let me break it down for you. My life's work. I learned I build a huge business.

I really no wine like uncomfortably well. I also am a very good dude in business, which gave me the leverage when I decided to start my own brand to go to farmers and get unconscious deals on the grapes because of all the beautiful things I did for them over the last twenty five years, which allowed me to do what I wanted, which was to create the best

twenty dollar wine in the world. So that was the business plan, create the best wine in the world, direct to consumer, no shelves, no restaurants, not even my dad's story with people people order ship correct subscription, niece. We will create a rose, a white, a red, and you will get it when it comes out, so you don't have to think because people actually don't want to think about what wine to buy. Then there's another part of the story. My partners in that business Nature Rhodor and

John Troutman. John Troutman met me at the Boston Wine Expo the first year Wine Library TV exploded in two thousand seven, and I went up to Boston and I had a table where every table at this expo was people serving their wines. And I had a table with four laptops on it, and I was handing out DVDs of my nine best episodes that I put on YouTube. And John Troutman was a fan of the show because his dad owned a restaurant. He wanted to learn about wine,

and he helped me hand out DVDs. He then became an intern for a wine social network that I bought that we failed at, and then became a employee of Binner Media in its earliest days. Then I got him a mom at a wine distributor that I was friends with. He worked there for a year. He decided to come back to Biner Media and ended up being at the end of his binor media time. In my chief of staff, what before I had a chief of staff. I had a four person team trying to do what I told

you earlier called the office of the CEO. It was inefficient. I realized that, and so John and Nate Nate was another kid at Arizona State who want to learn about wine. Found me on YouTube. This is all these young kids met me in two thousand six seven on YouTube because nobody was doing it, sent an email, got an internship at Wine Library. I interacted with him twice during his whole internship. I just started Veiner Media with my brother. He was interning for Wine Library. I was only there

once a week because the transformation was happening. He said, can I spend some time with you? I said yes. I decided to take the fifteen person Beiner Media company to Vermont for like a family, kind of like offsite. We competed the whole weekend because that's all I loved. We played volleyball. I liked the way that Nate played volleyball competitively and offered him a job based on how he played volleyball. He became my admin, my second ever admin. He crushed at it. He then became a j's right

handed and he then became an office of CEO. I had this idea that I was ready to do a director consumer wine brand, that I could do it, that I could do the twenty other thing that Vainer Media was getting big enough that I could take some talent from that, and I knew that I had John and Nate. I made them my partners. They ran the business along with me. And so from the moment I thought about it to the day we sold to Consolation was less than two years. But really, if you listen carefully, it

was twelve years on two men. It was my whole life. It was all the learnings I picked up on advertising on social media, directed consumers, shopify understanding. So that's how I think it works, right. I think everything I've accomplished, and I mean this with all my soul, everything that I've accomplished professionally up to this second of doing this podcast will almost be forgotten and dwarfed. But what I do between fifty and sixty five, I really believe that

what was the work for those months? He you had your whole life about wine. You knew it. You knew the guys with the grapes. It's direct to consumers. You're not bottling, is it? We we had We had the yes. But that was easy because I can do that every day. I mean, I believe that tomorrow I can start a subscription base for most products about least ten thousand people on the back of just telling my community I'm doing it.

What was the cost, because I don't know for empathy, they were being two hundred forty three times a year for twenty bottle of wine, times twelve for a case, and so you were paying seven twenty a year for the subscription. The biggest parts of that business were building the tech stack, the shopify, the email infrastructure. Did you do that with people in house at van or did you hire outside? Everything was internal. This is the whole

punch line of everything. I'm up to having the capabilities to do this for blueberries and for scarfs and for hats, and picking the right talent internally to jump on this side that wouldn't hurt Vain or media because you know that's also the mothership to do the creative and the media spend to acquire customers that have ever heard of

Gary v and just wanted twenty dollar wine. The biggest part, I think, actually in my opinion, was finding the incredible people at crush Pad who were the infrastructure of making the wine, making that deal and actually tasting a stunning amount of red white I was saying red and white grapes to make those three wines and really feel like I could nail America's palette. That was actual work. But Constellation by did they bought the subscription base. You know

what they bought. They bought recurring revenue, they bought me and they bought. What they really bought is a ecosystem that now they can instill into all their incredible brands, like Robert Mandavi, the Prisoner this one. When you sell wine direct consumer, you make a dollar on the dollar. When you sell it the normal way that almost every single person buys wine, which is usually at a restaurant or retailer, the winery sells it to a distributor for

fifty cents on the dollar. Those are very big economics. What do you think about the fact that I left the real estate brokerage I was at for twelve years plenty of real estate all overhead covered by everybody else's great, top of the game, top selling team across the country three years in a row. Blew it all up and started my own real estate company in the middle of a pandemic and announced it in September. To be very frank, when I hear you articulate that again, the only thing

that went through my mind was practicality. You had gotten to a place because of the leverage you've created for yourself through the decisions and work that you made for yourself, that you have been now on the other side of the equation where the trade of that infrastructure overhead the brand was no longer as remarkable in return to what

you were getting. And so instead of garnering resentment against that institution and infrastructure and yourself for not having the balls to do it, you decided to do the smart, emotional thing and do it for yourself. Because even if you fucking fail, thank god at eight one, you won't have the resentment or the regret of not jumping when it was black and white obvious that you should jump. There's a there's a thing. I don't know where it is because we came into this office not too long ago.

I have like a little plaque here. It's one of my favorite quotes that I'd rather regret the things I did and the things I never tried. The whole reason I went to New York City to try to be an actor and gave myself two years because if I don't do this, I will regret it for the rest of my life. I think this subject that we're touching

on right now needs a lot more attention. I think people would live their lives differently if they actually understood that there is an enormous amount of underlying depression and sadness in what I would call the sixty year old set around regret. Yeah, I remember distinctly. I was on the West Side Highway. The Hudson River Park had a new piece of grass, and that's where I was with fifteen unpaid actors doing the worst performance ever of Romeo

and Juliet. And I remember standing next to the guy that was playing Father Capulets, who was I think seventy four, and he was so excited. He was talking about how this was going to be his big break. He was inviting all these people, and in my head, I was like, man, we just almost got hit by a dump truck. We're on the side of the highway. You know. I appreciate it. I appreciate the huts, but I appreciate all that. But I need to start making moves because I do not

want to be you when I'm seventy five. Unless what you were doing on the side of the West Side Highway playing Father calpulate to people walking their dogs who don't care makes you absolutely happy. Happiness has to come first no matter what we do in business and what we do in life. And for me, I just knew that being that old on the side of the West Side Highway wasn't going to make me happy, so I had to do something else, you know, the end. What's

the money mean to you? Then? From the exit and the money you've made for investments and the money that you have into Vener, you're talking about a significant amount of dollars. I think you've lived below your means clearly. What does money mean to you? What's the power choice? I think that people who make eighty tho dollars a year or who make eighty million a year have the same opportunity to have choice. It completely is predicated on

living within the structure. To your point, I am fascinated by the ability to be able to save money to give you incredible choice because it's about saving money, right. It's like, hey, I can do something new for four years and if it doesn't work, I can still pay my rent, my mortgage, feed my kids my car bill. Like it's about saving money. And I think that that has gone completely away, which is why people don't have choice.

I'm sure you know this. Ryan. You see this all the time because you sell high network homes and you see people who actually can't do it all cash deal and you're like, how is that possible? Look at who this person is or what it seems they have done. It's because they have made a decision. By the way, I don't demonize this. If you want to fly private and have a yacht and all this, muscletov live your life.

But for me, what money means is not that, though I'm not scared to do it occasionally for special things. It's around choice, and that's all it means to me. The ability that if tomorrow I want to meditate for eighteen months and then come out of it and become a politician, a teacher, a Buddha, or triple down on being a capitalist entrepreneur, all of it is in choice because of what I've been able to create. And I

don't think that's a millionaire's gift. I really do believe because I know these people, because I spend time with these people, because a lot of them are my friends I grew up with. End or people have been affected by my conversation around saving money. I believe almost everybody has a salary and then lives above it with credit cards and credit I think if people learned at sixty three thousand a year twenty to live below it and bank savings, that they be shocked how that makes them feel.

I have two more questions for you, and then gonna let you go and run all your companies. One, when I told you that I was doing this podcast and it was called Big Money Energy, what did that mean to you? The first take I had is it's a flashy headline that I hope that people come on it and break down the non obvious. I believe that almost everything I do is the non obvious to the big money Energy thing, which allows me probably at the end of the day, to be way up there in big

money Energy. And so my take was, this is gonna have that kind of positioning. And then if Ryan does a good job, and obviously he's asking me to be on it, so I'm he's giving me indicators that he's going to if he can juxtaposition that title with thoughtful conversation of how you actually get there in the in the way that almost everybody doesn't understand. Everybody's complete misunderstanding around flash and keeping up with the Joneses and perception

is reality. I think if you can round that out with thoughtfulness, I think it could be really cool. I appreciate that last question. When are we gonna go fight a house? You know, listen, I'm pretty pumped right, Like, I'm a Manhattan boy. I know what market is right for you. I remember when we were at the next game, right, and honestly, do you guys, how is the market is a top? I'm like, yeah, there's blood everywhere, and sit down. I want to talk about the blood that was before

all this. Yeah. I love that you're ending with this because it's it's what I of about you. You are in pocket with me, brother, I am watching there is real collateral damage between COVID and the political climate around taxes that I think Manhattan residential real estate. And then you also know, like I'm a simple boy, I'm about

supply and demand. Not only are there a lot of people thinking about taxes or have learned that they can live a different life outside of the island, there's also that's in juxtaposition to the fact that on the super high end, the amount of inventory that was being created for the five to seven years prior has me awfully excited about getting serious about this conversation. But honestly, I'll give you a preview. Everybody, I want you to hear this.

I will be calling Ryan fors Or this second. I have a better understanding of timing of like, for example, I think this whole year COVID wise is still a much bigger wash than most people think, and so I think I just want to figure that part out. Plus the recruitment that might have you seen what's going on with the Miami mayor and like histopfulness about recruiting tech come Like Ryan, I'm stunned how many of my business

contemporation moving from California to Texas. Yeah. Now we've done the business that we're doing now between Texas and and Florida back and forth, and the communities that we're building there with with agents and salespeople. It's crazy, and we're doing those We're doing a lot of these deals completely virtually. These are big money deals there to million dollar deals over the phone. I believe that comes at the detriment of Manhattan in the short term, and that excites me

because I love this. I need the action I'm more than happy to give up fifty of my money to sit in the city that has this center. I don't you know, Miami's cute and all I mean, but let there be no confusion. This is fucking the epicenter of the universe. You're the man. I want to end on that line. Thank you so much for being here, Thanks for being on the Padcast. I'll talk soon. Thanks damn.

If you're ready to take action today based on Gary V's entire blueprint for how he got to where he is, go to Big Money Energy dot com slash podcast to download an action plan and I put together for you as well as the show notes. That's Big Money Energy dot com slash podcast. Find more podcasts like Big Money Energy on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Big Money Energy is hosted by me

Ryan Sirhint. It's produced by Mike Costarelli and Joe Lorsca and executive produced by Christina Everett.