Forget Algorithms - Here's How to Actually Grow in 2026 l Best Episodes of 2025

Summary

The GaryVee Audio Experience

Episode: Forget Algorithms – Here's How to Actually Grow in 2026
Date: December 30, 2025
Host: Gary Vaynerchuk
Format: Keynote & Q&A at BizX 2025 Conference

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Episode Overview

In this high-voltage keynote and Q&A from the BizX 2025 conference, Gary Vaynerchuk dives deep into the real drivers of business growth—now and heading into 2026. His message is clear: Forget chasing mysterious algorithms and platform changes. The real game is about relentless adaptability, building brand (not just visibility), and outworking complacency. Drawing on candid stories, tough truths, and his trademark directness, Gary addresses small business resilience, branding in an evolving tech landscape, why “more content” isn’t up for debate, pricing bravely, and protecting your private life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Core of Entrepreneurial Resilience

• Resilience is Non-Optional
  • For entrepreneurs, resilience is like oxygen—it’s the baseline for survival.
  • “If you aren’t resilient, if you’re not adaptable… you’re out of business.” (01:32)
• Adaptability is Everything
  • Staying nimble in the face of tech and personnel shifts is critical.
  • Anticipate talent demands; retention depends on how much you truly value your people.
  • “I know that the biggest way to grow their business by a country mile with no money is social media. Creative.” (02:49)

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2. Brand-Building in the AI Era: Survive & Thrive

• Big Tech & The New Funnel
  • Gary warns that as AI-powered platforms (like ChatGPT) develop, they’ll likely own more of the customer discovery funnel—potentially sidelining small businesses unless brands stand out.
  • “I think we're going into a very dangerous era of big tech where they're going to be like, fuck the nickels that come along with advertising. We're going to take the whole funnel.” (04:05)
• Why Brand Is Your Moat
  • Don’t be a faceless commodity! Consumers need to ask smart speakers for your business by name.
  • “If you do not build brand you will become a commodity.” (05:17)

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3. Fame vs. Influence: Keeping Personal Life Private

• You Don’t Have to Sacrifice Privacy
  • Gary shares his extreme separation of business and personal life: “I'm the most private public person on earth. I don't share my life. …I put out content about business. That's number one.” (05:55)
  • You can scale your brand (think Coca-Cola or IBM) without becoming personally famous.
• You Don’t Have to Love Content Marketing—You Just Have to Do It
  • “I hate working out and eating well. I hate it, but I do it. Cause it’s right.” (08:01)
  • If you won’t post, hire someone to do it relentlessly.

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4. Authenticity over “Flexing”

• Don’t Fake Lifestyles or Signal Status
  • Gary calls out those who flaunt wealth online: “By the way, I'm that rich, and there's zero photos of me in a private jet... I'm not a douchebag either.” (08:48)
  • Content wins on business value, not flash.
• Content Should Reflect Who You Really Are
  • The kernel: You can document your real work, your philosophies, and company journey without ever crossing lines that feel inauthentic or show-offy.

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5. Pricing: Charge What You’re Worth—And Then Test For More

• Discover Your Market Value, Iteratively
  • Understand your worth by bumping up your price until the market says no, multiple times. Then adjust.
  • “The concept of not constantly trying to get more money for what you do is crazy. Why wouldn’t you? …But you need to ask for more as often as possible and don’t stop.” (12:15)
• Don’t Get Discouraged By Early Nos
  • Expect and persist through rejection, then find your ceiling.
  • “You need 10 nos, seven nos before you've really figured out your price.” (13:08)

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6. Coaching, Self-Awareness & Candor

• Coaching as a Growth Lever
  • Even natural talents need outside eyes—coaches help see your blind spots.
  • Gary admits his leadership flaw: candor with employees—waiting too long to give honest feedback.
  • “My kryptonite in business has been candor… If I had a coach, I think that would have been addressed much earlier.” (18:19)

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7. The Power of Losing & Loving the Grind

• Self-Esteem Comes from the Hard Path
  • Gary loves being a die-hard NY Jets fan because they lose:
  • “I love the pain. I love the grind. I love the hardship. I love when people make fun of me about the Jets. I love that shit.” (19:26)
  • Translates to business: True fulfillment comes from staying committed through adversity.

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8. Education, the Next Generation & Veefriends

• Entrepreneurial Education
  • Formal college isn’t for everyone, especially creative or entrepreneurial kids.
  • Gary’s Veefriends project is designed to instill skills and emotional tools for kids who might take non-traditional paths.
  • “The creative set should never go to university. It’s not built for that. It’s built to make workers.” (21:57)

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Audience Q&A Highlights

Social Media:

• If You Only Have One Hour?

  • No excuses: “I would focus on having more than fucking an hour a day, Giles.” (23:16)
  • But seriously, prioritize creating value-driven LinkedIn content: Share actionable expertise, use humor, and provide real tips instead of pitching.

• How Much Should You Post? Don’t Fear Repetition or Imperfection

  • Boring content is fixed with practice—talent emerges through reps.
  • “The first time you and I walked, it was ugly... The first time people in this room decide to make content, it's not going to be great.” (27:19)
  • Stop obsessing over production value; post “in the dirt” and human.

• Ignore the Haters

  • Online trolls are deeply unhappy; don’t let their negativity halt your progress.
  • “If somebody takes time to go around the Internet, find you and leave a negative comment, think about how sad their life is.” (30:01)

AI and ChatGPT Discovery:

• SEO for AI is Early & Uncertain
  • Explore, but don’t get trapped chasing speculative tactics in AI search—focus on brand and social content since platforms are moving targets.
  • “I would say it’s early and I think a lot of people could waste a lot of time and money trying to win it. It’s like wet cement.” (31:09)

Content for “Unsexy” Industries:

• Any Brand Can Be Interesting
  • HR? Gary argues it’s actually “the sexiest”—because people problems are universal and drive lots of engagement, especially on LinkedIn.

Niche vs. National Content:

• The Algorithm Finds Your Audience
  • The modern algorithm distributes content to hyper-targeted viewers—don’t stress about size, focus on making hyper-relevant content.
  • “The content is finding the people… It would be like… the shows that you most likely will love just come to you, not you clicking the channels.” (36:15)

Cross-Platform Strategy:

• Tailor for Platforms, But Start Simple
  • Craft for each platform by tweaking language, thumbnail, and format, but don’t let that complexity keep you from starting.

Measuring Success:

• Views Trump Followers
  • “Following” is dying; focus on reach (views), not vanity stats.
  • “I look at views achieved by the post. Not clicks, not comments… but the number one KPI… is views.” (40:22)

Company Page vs. Founder Page?

• Both!
  • “Both. Everywhere. Everywhere, all the time.” (41:12)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the changing landscape:

  • “I'm not sure [AI platforms] are going to be as gracious as Google and wanna give away the business... I think we're going into a very dangerous era of big tech.” (03:07–04:05)

• On authenticity in content:

  • “Some people sell the lifestyle, other people live it. I'm a confusion to a lot of people.” (09:11)

• On the business case for endless content:

  • “Your business needs to put out 20 to 30 pieces of content a day throughout social. You don't have to. And you can do occasional stuff. The clip from this can be clipped and used.” (05:55)

• On not loving the work, but doing it:

  • “I hate working out and eating well. I hate it, but I do it. Cause it’s right.” (08:01)

• On getting rejected as you test your price:

  • “You need 10 nos, seven nos before you've really figured out your price.” (13:08)

• On value-driven content:

  • “The ones that work are the ones that provide value... Jab, jab, jab, right hook. Give value, give value, give value and then ask.” (39:26)

• On the social media moment:

  • “There is not a historical comp in business and marketing history where the predominant attention of society was on a platform and that platform was willing to for you to get attention on it for free.” (42:14)

• Parting Shot & Call to Action:

  • “It's fucking free." (43:55)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Topic | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------| | 01:22 | Resilience in entrepreneurship | | 03:07 | AI, ChatGPT, and implications for small businesses | | 05:55 | Separation of public content and private life | | 08:01 | Doing what you need even if you don’t love it | | 12:15 | Pricing yourself and reading the market | | 15:40 | The value of coaching and vulnerability in leadership | | 18:47 | NY Jets fandom and loving the grind | | 21:57 | Education, Veefriends, and career paths for kids | | 23:16 | Social media priorities for small B2B businesses | | 25:55 | Getting past perfectionism and embracing practice | | 30:01 | Online negativity and self-esteem | | 31:09 | Why SEO for AI is still “wet cement” | | 36:15 | Algorithms now serve, not hoard, the right content | | 40:22 | Most important social metrics: Reach, not follows | | 41:12 | Company vs. Founder page—do both | | 42:14 | Historical significance of the social era | | 43:55 | Final call to action: “It’s fucking free.” |

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Final Takeaway

Gary Vaynerchuk’s message for 2026—and for anyone who cares about growing a business:
Quit waiting, quit worrying about being perfect, and quit underestimating both the fleeting power of social platforms and the enduring value of brand. Outwork the lethargic, focus on serving value, and never forget:
"It’s fucking free." (43:55)
This is your once-in-a-generation chance—don’t blow it.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the GaryVee audio experience. Before we jump in, today's episode is from Gary's keynote and Q and a at the BizX 2025 conference. If you run a business or lead a team, this one is packed with brutally honest tactical advice around brand building, pricing and getting real with your content. Pay close attention. This is one of those talks that you'll want to play back twice.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

This is the GaryVee audio experience. Before you go to the podcast, I've got a big announcement. I know several years ago a lot of you bought 12 books of 12 and a to get the NFT, the book games NFT. I also know that a lot of people have dropped off on their journey with Veefriends, which is a massive mistake because what we're doing on Burn island and what we're doing on base with book games is remarkable. So you need to go to Vee friends vfriends.com oldbooks go to vfriends.com oldbooks with an S. You will go to that landing page and we will help you explain if you are trying to figure out where you're going. NFTs are how to bring them over to the website and how to start activating them so that you can start using them for all the incredible exchanges and draws and raffles and experiences that we're doing for people that actually own the book games. So please go to veefriends.com oldbooks where you can start your journey on reactivating your book games. Journey.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

I want to start with a question that is really important for small business. The word resilience.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

How do you see resilience for us as business people and business owners?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, this. You know, first of all, thank you for having me at this great conference. It's kind of, I don't know if you noticed, it was very important for me to say what I said up front. I love this audience. You know, I've been in corporate Fortune 500 land for a while. This is my favorite crew because how do I think about resilience for this crew? Like Oxygen. That's all they know. The greatest thing about entrepreneurship and owning your business is you have no choice. You have no choice. If they're here, every single person here is actually delivering on a level of resilience that is not found in society. Because if they weren't, they'd be out of business and they wouldn't be here. It is my great admiration that I have for all of you because all of you know what I know, and I've known it since I was 20 years old. The buck stops with you if you aren't resilient, if you're not adaptable. This is what I'm talking about. That was my whole talk. The entire talk I just gave is strictly about adaptability. I know that they're about to feel pressure for the optionality of their employees. So I'm trying to get them to care about their employees a little bit more because that's going to create more retention. I know that the biggest way to grow their business is by a country mile with no money. Is social media. Creative.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

But when it comes to resilience, that's my great admiration of this room. That's all they know. Otherwise they go out of business.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

So you ended off saying, Google AdWords dying. How do we get found on Chat GPT today? How does ChatGPT bring us business?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So for the people that are most advanced here, there is ways to do SEO on ChatGPT. And good news, this is why I'm yelling at you. For social media, ChatGPT and whoever else wins, whether they win or somebody else, whoever the Google is or the Facebook is of the AI era, I have good news for you. They're gonna be very happy to take your money. When you type in I need a plumber, they'll take your money. What I'm more scared about is the companies that are building the best tech. I'm not sure they're gonna be as gracious as Google and wanna give away the business. When someone types in, I'm looking to buy a new home in Bristol. I'm not so sold that ChatGPT is going to send you to a real estate agent. I think they're going to send you to their real estate agent. I think we're going into a very dangerous era of big tech where they're going to be like, fuck the nickels that come along with advertising. We're going to take the whole funnel.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Google started free. ChatGPT started with money. You got to sign up, you got to pay right from the beginning.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And that's because the tech was so expensive in the processing. But we all know this, all tech starts off expensive and gets cheaper. Remember the cell phones that look like this? They were like $2,000 in the 90s. Right now they go down and down and down in price. And I think we've seen with all the deep seek and all that stuff, like there'll be free versions of this. I'm more worried that we have to build brand. Because when I, I don't want to be at the mercy of people like this. Going to ChatGPT and say hey ChatGPT, I've got an entrepreneurial question. Let me ask you this. I want them to be like hey chatgpt, what would Gary Vee think about this? I'm out here trying to build brand. Got it, Got it. Brand. Not hey ChatGPT, hey Alexa, send me a pizza. No, no no. Hey Alexa, send me a Pizza Hut. Send me Domino's. Everybody in here is looking to build brand. Cause if you do not build brand you will become a commodity.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

So I'm gonna steal a little bit of Gary's time for my own personal reasons here. But I think it'll. I've built the biggest business coaching company in the world. A thousand offices, 84 countries, two and a half billion dollars in sales. I still don't want to be famous. My company should be a lot more famous than it is. The people we help, the way we help them. Father of five, I always worry about that. How did you. Yeah, because you know your dad, you got all of those things.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, by the way, the opening of who doesn't know me? Let me do the verse. How many people here would consider solid fans or have good knowledge of me or follow me carefully? Raise your hands so one more time, raise them high. What all these people brother will tell you is they don't even know what my kids look like. I have a 15 and 12 year old. The people that just raise their hands, you're included. I'm the most private public person on earth. I don't share my life. I'm exactly like you. I have no interest in people being in my life. My family is sacred. My personal life is sacred. Again, a lot of people just raised their hand and if you're at a table with them, you can ask them right now, is that true? I put out an ungodly amount of content, but it is not about my puppy or my kids or like I keep my personal life private. I put out content about business. That's number one. Number two, you still don't even have to do that. You can make your business famous. To your point, you still don't even have to become the face or famous. But you need your business to do a much better job in being a brand and build the brand. Nobody knows who Johnny Coca Cola is. Coca Cola markets. You don't know the IBM CEO or founder. You know IBM, right? You don't know, you know Salesforce, Spark, Betioff, is pretty known. Way more people know Salesforce than know Mark. So you just need to make the business market data. Your business needs to put out 20 to 30 pieces of content a day throughout social. You don't have to. And you can do occasional stuff. The clip from this can be clipped and used. And so I think there's ways to do it. Do you see?

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Yeah, I think from a logical standpoint, I can get all that. But being a little more esoteric at heart, I know that there's a way that if I don't want to do, doesn't matter how much content I put out. If in my heart, I don't want that to boom. It's not gonna boom, brother.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I don't like anything. I just know what I have. By the way, I hate working out and eating well. I hate it, but I do it. Cause it's right.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I don't give a shit about your feelings, brother. I care about your business. You don't have to do it. You have to hire someone to do it.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

All right, you've all heard the advice.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Makes sense, right? Oh, it makes.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

It makes a lot of sense.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And I don't. I don't know if it's also a.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Bit of the Australian in me. Like, I watch, you know, other guys, I won't name them, but I'm not the guy that stands up. They're going, look at me in my freaking jet. If you're that rich, you shouldn't be showing photos in your private jet, by the way.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By the way, I'm that rich, and there's zero photos of me in a private jet. Yeah, I'm with you, all right? I'm not a douchebag either.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Well, some of them are.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It kills me at the highest levels.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

If I do any of that. All my Australian buddies call me up, dude, what was that shit? Why?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Why? Why on earth would you do that?

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

I don't know. Some days I read Gary Vee books and it tells me to just keep putting out content.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes, it does. You're exactly right. But it doesn't say put out douchebag content. Again, if you're really looking at how I do it, I do none of that. Yeah, I don't even have a piece of jewelry on. I think this shirt's like nine bucks. Like, that's to your point. Some people sell the lifestyle, other people live it. I'm a confusion to a lot of people. Thank you. I'm a confusion to a lot of people. When people come and visit me at vaynermedia, and see 2000 employees. Half the people that just raised their hands think I'm a motivational speaker. I run businesses. You do as well. I admire that. I think that's the content you put out, by the way, just so you know, unlike a lot of other people. To your point, all the advice I just gave for the last 45 minutes, I do that. Everything I just talked to you about, just so you know, in a world of many speakers that talk about shit they don't do, is everything I just told you about one on one time with employees at scale, content every day at scale. I'm going to show you something, bro. This is my WhatsApp. This is where my team and I make the content. That is me. That is me writing the copy to the content that I put out. This is me with my team. I wrote the copy. I'm still writing the copy on my social media posts. I'm in the fucking trenches. I'm in the dirt. I'm in the dirt more than most.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Of you get to do the bits, though, that you love still. You don't have to do the bits you don't love as much anymore.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

This is what I'm trying to tell you. This is why I'm doing this little shtick. You don't have to do the content on social. I don't do the contracts in my company. I've signed 45,000 contracts probably in the last five years. I've read none of them. I'm being dead fucking serious. But I have Mark Yudkin, who's my brother. Not my actual brother, but he's been with me now for 20 years. That's it. Fucking figure it out.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

But I am certain someone's gonna play that clip back to me every fucking year for the next, like, forever.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, I'll tell you why I'm passionate about it. I love you for it. I love that you don't want to do what I also don't think is good, which is you're tricking kids and thinking Lambos and watches. That's not what this is about. Why I admire so many, so much about the people in this room is a lot of them are not doing it for the Lambo and the private jet. They're doing it because this is who we are. We're fucking business people. We're entrepreneurs. Hey, everybody. Hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. They'll make my mom super happy. So.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Business question. Charging more. Charging what you're worth. Being the top of the tree, not trying to be the competing on price.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

People thoughts always until the market says, go fuck yourself, right? Like, like the concept of not constantly trying to get more money for what you do is crazy. Why wouldn't you? Because the market is the market. When you're like, I mean, this is how speaking worked. The first time I did a speaking gig 15 years ago, I get this email. They're like, would you like to give a speech? I'm like, that sounds cool. I was running a wine store at the time, but I was starting the Internet thing, right? They're like, do you want to come and give a talk? So I'm like, yeah. I'm like, yes, I'm in. They're like, it's in Florida and whatever. I just was like excited to get asked to speak. He then replies, he's like, how much do you charge? I'm like, fuck, you can charge for this shit.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

My first ever gig, Robert Kiyosaki took me to Hawaii. I was a 20 year old kid. And he goes, what's your speaking fee? I said, what's yours? He said, this much? I said, same as mine.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Mine was pretty funny. So now I get the email from this guy. It's like 2006, he's like, he's like, what's your fee? Now I'm like sitting there looking at this email. Remember this was pretty, you know, laptops and cell phones, like, big monitor. I'm looking at this thing and I'm like, okay, because I'm no dope. Back to the answer I'm giving to everyone here. I'm like, I gotta come up with the biggest fucking number I could ever imagine to give a speech. And I Reply, I'm like, $5,000. The guy replies in two seconds to that email, he's like, done. I'm like, fuck. And the way I got to my price was I kept going and then the market told me, you're not that guy yet, Gary. Right? When I got to that 25k number at that point in my career, they were like, that's it. Because every time I said 30, 35, 40, it was, no, we're gonna go in a different direction. And I was like, respect. The one thing I love about this conversation is this is a humbling, fun process. Don't be insecure about this, don't be scared to ask. But when they tell you no, don't be offended by it. Just keep Asking for more. The market will tell you what you're worth. Where people get this screwed up, brother, is they're like, I know my worth. I'm worth more. I'm like, no, you're not. Nobody's paying you. But you need to ask for more as often as possible and don't stop. The other mistake people make is they get excited about what I just said. They get motivated. Whatever they're charging, next time they charge more. The first person says no and they go right back. You need 10 nos, seven no's before you've really figured out your price. The first time someone said no to me at 30K, I'm like, Psst. You know? Cause then another no, then another no. And then I had to look myself in the mirror one day and be like, okay, you're a 25k speaker now. And obviously that's evolved well.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Yeah, I know how much it's evolved. Quite well, in fact.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Thank you, sir. But this goes back to why I want you to build more brand. I want you to be in a place where you can fill out 10 times this many people without needing, you know, to use keynote speakers like, brand is brand is brand. And it doesn't have to be, how.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Would I do it?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, the more content, just put out more content. That's right. Because then you're gonna have more. That's right. And more people are gonna be your fans. And then this becomes double the size. Cause they're there to see you, which gives you more leverage to not have to get a top tops. Like it's the game. Yeah, it's the game. Actually.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Speaking of. So we've been in business coaching now for 31 years. Your thoughts on coaching? Having a coach?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm a huge fan of that concept. I think it all depends. Like for example, in business, I never had a coach because it was my God given gift. And I learned more by losing. So to me, my brain does not process how to be great at business from a coach to. Because I need to taste it. I need the Ls. But many far more successful business people than me 100% attribute their success from coaching. I need it everywhere else in my life, whether it's therapy, whether it's personal training, whether like. So I'm incredibly bullish of someone looking from the outside in, by the way. I would benefit from business coaching financially. I just like scraping my knee and banging my elbow in business so much that I keep it away, but it is not lost on me. There are many things in my own game that And I could see it, you know, you all know this, right? You could see the flaws in everybody in your family, but you can't see your flaw. You know what mom and dad and your siblings and your spouse suck at, but you can't see yours. If I had a coach, for example, let me be very vulnerable. My kryptonite, which is crazy. Some people are going to laugh right now. My kryptonite in business has been candor. Gary V on stage is very good at candor. Gary Vaynerchuk, the human being, is so into the stuff I told you about employees. I get into family vibes with my employees. You know, those lover boys that, like, fall in love at first sight, that, you know, like, I'm like that in business. You, like, work for me for like a week. I'm like, we're fucking. We're in this. You know, I can't help it. I'm just very team, very family. But what that created was the more I liked you, the harder it was for me to tell you the truth about what I thought you were as an employee, which led to me working around it. I would always be very, like, giving on the way out. I would have to get years of resentment before I finally had the courage to fire you. And then I gave you a huge severance, and you haven't done shit for two years. And now I'm giving you a huge severance. And the worst part of all, you're then mad at me because I never told you. And I surprised you because on Thursday, I'm like, brad, you're fucking the best. I'm the best weekend. And then Monday, I'm like, hey, Monday, come in and come like. You're the fucking bet. Literally, Thursday, you're the fucking best. I fucking love you. Hey, by the way, Monday, come in. You come in Monday, I'm like, brad, we're going to have to let you go. What?

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And so candor was my kryptonite, and it took me 20 years. And I would tell you as I sit here today in a world where I'm a 10 out of 10 and a 9 out of 10 and so many things in business, on a good day, I'm still a five and a six out of a very important trait of a leader. And I work on it every day. If I had a coach, I think that would have been addressed much earlier. Yeah, fun thing.

[Podcast Host]

The Jets.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The New York Jets.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Not that fun lately.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, no, very fun. How many people here are proper football fans that are die hards of Their team. Raise your hand. What about of any sport? Who here is a die hard fan of a sport? Raise your hands. So here's the weird thing about me. And this is why I'm such a good entrepreneur. I love my New York jets, my American football team so much. They have not won a championship since January 12th, 1969. They fucking suck. But I like that part. See? Oh.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

The scrape the knees and the New York Jets. It makes sense.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Got it. I grew up a New York Yankees fan.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

When they won my first championship with them in 1996, I never watched another game. Really? Really. I actually make fun of all the fans of very successful teams. I feel like you get your self esteem from their victories, but you're not doing shit. I love the pain. I love the grind. I love the hardship. I love when people make fun of me about the Jets. I love that shit.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

I'd love you to help us out with our foundation at some point. Cause we educate kids for free to leave school and be an entrepreneur.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

In.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

Because.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, in.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

That's in.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You'll email me in. In fact, I might have mentioned it earlier actually, I don't think I brought this up. If I may for a second. Yeah. The thing I'm actually working on right now in my career is the thing I'm most excited about that I've ever done. I've started something called Veefriends v e e friends veefriends.com, especially if you have somebody under 10 in your life you should go look at is my Pokemon, it is my Disney, it is my Marvel. And it's 250 characters. Patient Panda, accountable aunt, competitive clown. And it is strictly built to help along with the parenting that is so challenging in today's world. And a lot of it is targeting the kids that should not go to university and should be entrepreneurs. There's plenty of kids that should go to school. They're built like that. But. But we got into this place in the last 40 years that everyone should go to university and college, which is insanity. And in America it's a real thought so bad because at least in most parts of the rest of the world, the government pays for it. In America, these kids are going into massive debt to get a piece of.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

His daughter 350 grand to go to college. My ROI on that.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Negative. 350. Of course. 100%. It's. It's a joke for half of the.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

But I put it to work with my great friends. You guys all know the Irwin family, Australia Zoo Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. She goes and works with Terry and Bindi and Robert. She's getting the best lessons in life working for real entrepreneurs, real planet savers. She's working with them. Robert, she's a photographer. Robert's taken her under his wing, teach her to photography. Like that's better to me.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And that's why I'm smiling, because the creative set should never go to university. It's not built for that. It's built to make workers.

[Business Coach / Interviewer]

I'm going to turn it back over to Rachel and they're going to take your questions now for Gary.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Thank you. I'll see you in a minute. Cheers. Let's clap it up for the man.

[Podcast Host]

Thank you.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Thank you, Brad. Very powerful conversation and no reflection on his question asking skills. But we are going to democratize it now. We're going to put Gary in the seat, a hot seat with your questions. We've had loads of amazing questions in and it's not the last chance. If you still have a burning question, you can still get it in on the app. Slido is still open. QR code is on the table, as I know many of you have discovered already. So should we, should we dive straight in?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Please.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Okay, the first question we have is from Giles, cleverly. Where's Giles? Somewhere in the room.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Giles.

[Moderator / Event Host]

I see him, I'm getting a hand. He's over there somewhere. You can ask Anonymous. This is not about you, Giles. But great question, you're the first one. If you had only one hour a day, limited resources and you're building a B2B business selling it support, what would you focus on first?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I would focus on having more than fucking an hour a day, Giles. The fuck are we talking about?

[Moderator / Event Host]

So how much of your day then?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

How are we doing? Fucking working 15 hours a day and I made it 20 years ago. This is fucking hour. But I get it. The answer to the question is I would make social media content for LinkedIn. My friends, if you have an IT support business, you making videos to tell the world who you are, that your name is Giles or Sarah or Rick and you've been doing this for 17 years. And then remember what I said, Everything I said was important. I said it for a reason. Instead of saying come and hire me, I'm Giles, I do IT support you say hi, I'm Giles, I've done this for 15 years. Let me tell you the three things right now that are going on in it support that small businesses are not seeing and I'm gonna save you from hiring me and cause I'm gonna tell you the trick that other IT support people get paid to do that. You can fix yourself. Number one, just reset the router, you idiot. By the way, what I'm doing, notice what's happening, right? Like I literally made that piece of content. We got the laugh on the router. That's gonna be compelling. You're obviously incredibly great at what you do. You have to engage and bring value to the audience. Some do it with humor, some, some do it with beauty. Some do. Others can do it with information. But you have to bring value. The piece of content that I just showed you that I would do was real. It was real. I didn't do that for the stage. That is what I would say on video. I'm Giles. I've been doing this for 17 years. I do it. Let me tell you the three things that everyone's doing wrong. Next one, if you have a sense of humor. I use that for the first one. The second thing that would have come out of my mouth because I don't do it support I can't do it as well. Is something very detailed for 6 minutes or 16 seconds. Value.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Brilliant. And how many hours are we, Are we setting jars? Homework. How many hours a day are we setting in for homework? For making the social media content.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, look, I think at the end of the day it's, I'm agnostic to how much everybody learns differently. But I will say this. You can't read about doing push ups. You have to do them, go it, feel it, right? And if you do 50 pushups, you'll get 50 pushup results. And if you do 150 a day for four straight years, you will look the part if you put in the work on this. Remember earlier, I don't know if you might have been doing something else, but I asked this, everyone stand up who's done social media. And it didn't work.

[Moderator / Event Host]

A lot of people suck, don't they?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's right.

[Moderator / Event Host]

So taken away from the morning.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

But they don't have to suck. It requires on how they learn. This is a measly 15, $20. And I'm so passionate about this that I literally told them, don't buy this. Go to the 50 page deck that I did to summer this up. It's there, it's real and everybody knows it's real. You know it's real from your world. You talked about it how like the whole world flipped. Yeah, like I grew up in that era too. And I saw it. I'm like, TV's gonna lose TV beat the radio, but the Internet beat TV. It's just the way it works. And so I want them to put in as much work as it takes until they have videos and pictures that actually grow their business.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Great advice. Thank you, Giles. Well, I mean, we're on a similar theme. The second question's from singe, and it's when you suggest posting two to three times a day, it requires a lot of content. How do you recommend planning this without boring people?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, boring people are boring people. Like, you know, this is real. And by the way, I've watched people go from boring to not boring. It's called practice. You know, I think for her, for them, for him, you know, it's just more reps, like, how do I recommend it? I don't know if you know this, but the first time you and I walked, it was ugly. Right? Like the first time today or in general? In life?

[Moderator / Event Host]

In life. Right.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The first time you and I walked, it wasn't good. The first time we swam, you haven't.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Seen me dance either. That was terrible.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The first time people in this room decide to make content, it's not going to be great. Yep. Again, knowing enough about you, yours probably was good because you were naturally talented. You can go find my first video. It was called Wine Library tv, Episode one. And when you watch it, you'll see it's not who I am now, but you'll see, like, oh, I can see, like, I had more than the average bear. Some people here are destined to be remarkable. There are people literally in here who are destined to have millions of followers and they don't know it yet. And after it happens, it'll make sense. They'll realize, wait a minute. I am the life of the party in my family and friend group. I do have a funny, kind of weird sense of humor or what I'm really passionate about. The thing this group has is they really know their thing. Yep. This is important. You really know your craft. If you're really in business and you're surviving, you know your thing. And so, you know, the answer is less about preparing. The problem is they think they need to be perfect.

[Moderator / Event Host]

I, I, that's what I was just thinking. It's a lot more disposable than you think.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You had to be perfect. You know what? I was. You love this. You know what drove me crazy when I first started doing tv? How long it took to get to the punchline. The fucking lighting and the mic, you know, and fucking no sound.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Social media is.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm like, fuck this bullshit. Like, who cares? Like my friends, pay attention to what you pay attention to. The lighting doesn't have to be right. A lot of you, when you do social media, take six takes. If I flub something up in a video, I correct it in the video when I post it, what do you think? You're gonna think I'm not a good businessman cause I flubbed up a word? People are lost. That world is gone. The more human you are, the more it will work.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Do you have any personal rules about, you know, continuity of where you are, what you're wearing, the language you use?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Absolutely not.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Anything goes.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I look like Darth Vader in some style. Terrible. I mean, listen, I'm empathetic. Some people really care about how they look aesthetically. I understand that people are insecure. A lot of people here don't post because they post once. And johnnypants49 left a comment and said they were ugly or stupid. Stupid. And they stopped. A lot of people here are not posting because they still think they're in sixth grade. This is a game of self esteem versus insecurity. Let me just save a lot of you a lot of time. If somebody think about this. If somebody takes time to go around the Internet, find you and leave a negative comment, think about how sad their life is.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Absolutely.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

When they say you suck, you don't suck. They suck. Could you imagine taking time to consume somebody's video just to say they suck? And that's stopping people. When people. And by the way, I post so much. Every post has that.

[Moderator / Event Host]

It's fun, isn't it?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'll be honest with you, it is actually very interesting how it works in my body when I read that, I'm not mad. I feel bad. I genuinely do. I'm not hurt. For me, I'm empathetic and honestly, I'm grateful that that's not me, that I'm hiding behind an avatar to spit hate. If you're letting someone like that stop you from building your business, shame on you.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Too. Thanks for the questions since. Well, we're moving away from social media now and into the world of ChatGPT. So how can we be. This is from Tanya. How can we be a recommended solution? When people search for solutions on Chat GPT, how can we be.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, I was about to get there. Honestly, I'm in the beginning of that journey too. It's a whole new industry. You can actually search it on ChatGPT or Google SEO for AI bots. It's a whole new industry. But the reason I deviated pretty quickly away from it on stage is. I'm not sure how that's gonna all really work out. I would say it's early and I think a lot of people could waste a lot of time and money trying to win it. It still needs time to. It's like wet cement. I don't think we've really gotten there. However it is worth, if you care if Google search is a big part of your world, I would spend two to five hours reading and learning and getting a sense of who the leaders are. I'm doing that. But it's still worth wet, wet pain right now.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Okay, we'll move on then. Thanks for the question, by the way.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By the way. And I don't want you at the mercy. I hate that you were at the mercy of Google for the last 20 years. I definitely don't want you at the mercy of open AI. You have to build brand on social. And, and I need you to hear this. This is actually very important. I'm going to go up here for a second.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Go for it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

This is for impact. I need you to hear this. I could give a fuck about social media. I don't give a shit about it. I don't genuinely like it. I don't think it's the coolest. It's just where customers attention is right now. I will literally be here in 10 years making fun of you for making content on social media because the attention has moved and I'm like, what are you doing making content on social media? I need you to hear that this conviction, this push, this passion is predicated on, I've not seen in the last hundred years of business, a place where every customer's attention is. And it's free. Could you imagine television ads being free? This is a very important time of growth that may not ever be replicated. No kidding. So you're going to regret it. Especially, I mean, who here is retiring in the next seven years? And I don't mean you're going to fucking crush it and buy a private plane. I mean you're old and you're wrapping it up. Let me look at this. Seven years. Raise your hands. Old OGs. All right, first of all, let's clap it up for these OGs. For the rest of you, for the rest of you who are in business eight years from today, I'm going to say something nice and slow. If you do not act on what this whole talk was about, you will regret it. You will always look back and be like, why the hell did I not do it? When it was such a big opportunity. Please act.

[Moderator / Event Host]

There we go. Act. Call to action. The next question is anonymous, but it's a sexy question. They think you're a sexy guy. You're going to know the answer to this. Gary, please. We are an HR consultancy that supports SMEs, but no one wakes up thinking, I need HR. It's not sexy. How do they create content to help them realize that they need HR, sexy or otherwise?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I mean, I spent 30% of my talk talking about HR. I think HR is the sexiest. I'm being dead serious. I really do. All right, there, we found them. Found them. They were anonymous up until. It's these two. It's them. Look back to that reaction. I literally did spend 30% of my time talking about HR dynamics. I actually think it's actually very sexy. I think people are scared of it. It takes work. It's real. People want to think just, oh, I pay them and they should like, you know. So I think you just keep making content. I would tell you my HR content is disproportionately what grows the most on LinkedIn. I'm one of the 15 or 20 most followed people in the world on LinkedIn and I will tell you that the dominant content is HR content. I would argue HR content is the most sexy. We don't want to look in the mirror as business owners, but when we see the content that pokes at our zit, we know and it leads to opportunities. Got it.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Sexy hr. Thank you to the Meg Ryan of the HR world. Over on that table, we have another question. We have Amir. I hope I've not pronounced that horrendously. I'm building a brand in a niche market like property investment in Northern Ireland. How do you balance creating content for small audience and building national attention? Is that national insurance? Northern Ireland. Which one do we go ni? Northern Ireland. Thank you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

How do you balance content for a small audience and building national attention? You know that's a contradiction, right? Like, if it is a small audience by nature, it's not necessarily a national thing. Now, you may want to get to everyone in the nation, but there is no conflict in being in a niche. You're actually trying to get to everyone that you're trying to get to. I'm going to say this nice and slow because it's very nuanced, but I think it's going to inspire a lot of you. I'm going to say it again. Social media has changed. It's not what I grew up with. It's not get as many followers as possible. You post, they see it. It's now when you post something that's good, people see it. Now I'm going to really inspire all of you. These AI algorithms, they're getting better and better by the second they're reading the words you're saying in the video. If you're literally saying the words Northern Ireland, Ireland and property investment, it knows that. And then it is now showing that content to people that are interested in that. It's insane. The content is finding the people. It'd be like to put it in historic terms, it would be like turning on the telly and the shows that you most likely will love just come to you, not you clicking the channels. This is a profound moment in marketing history. I'm not kidding. And so just make the content, it's going to find the audience. It's insane.

[Moderator / Event Host]

I'm wondering personally, how much do you tailor your content for the platform that you're making? Or are you just changing the formatting and putting the same kind of stuff out there?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I like you. This is why I want them to read the 44 page deck or this book, all of it. The science around the art of this is very complex. I think about the thumbnail. I think about the first second of the video, the first three seconds of the video, the copy. I may use the same video and slightly edit it for LinkedIn vs YouTube, Shorts vs Snap vs TikTok vs Facebook vs Twitter. It's very nuanced. It's simple in theory, it is complicated. But I just want them to start and not worry about what we're saying right now, but to answer directly a lot.

[Moderator / Event Host]

And I think it's interesting now, whether the tail wags the beast, whether you, you do what you do and you make content out of it, or whether you create content specifically for social media to bring people into the pods. For example, which, which way round or both.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's just a circle, right? It's not left or right, it's a circle. It all works together.

[Moderator / Event Host]

I'm getting my questions in some more of yours. Now we have an anonymous one. What time. What type of videos do you find are the most engaging revenue producing?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, the ones that ask about revenue producing tend to do the worst. This question already means you're in trouble. Whoever asked it. The fact that you're thinking about the ROI of the direct video is going to hurt you. Think about that. The ones that most produce revenue are the ones that are often when you didn't intend to create revenue, bring value you have your store and your email and your conversion in your bio. So the ones that work are the ones that provide value. It's black and white nobody wants to be sold to. Think about why banner ads don't work. You guys like clicking banner ads. You like when the telly goes to a commercial or you like captivated in watching the commercial. We need to provide content that brings value and then business will come. But it is one of my books up there is called Jab, jab, jab, right hook. Give value, give value, give value and then ask. So I'm, I mean veefriends, my Marvel Disney that I just talked about. I have Topps trading cards coming out in May, right? Very important to me. I want every kid in Europe to buy a pack of these cards. I will make content that's like go buy a pack of these cards. It will have the best practices thumbnail, da da da. But I've provided so much value in the 8,000 posts that led to that one that that one will convert better because I've been jabbing the audience. Now I'm gonna land my right hook. If you're throwing right hook on every single post, the customer's gonna duck.

[Moderator / Event Host]

I think MrBeast is a fantastic example of that. Make amazing content to sell chocolate bars.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Of course, attention is the most important asset in the world. Attention.

[Moderator / Event Host]

So back to this question though. Are you looking at any of the statistics on your posts? Are you measuring success based? Is it engagement? Is it follows? Is it views?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Views reach. Follows is a dying art. Think about your own behavior. Remember when you used to follow someone? If you really now you just know the content's coming to you, you're not following as much. Following is dying. So I don't look at followers. I look at views achieved by the post. Not clicks, not comments. I look at those, but views achieved. If you're getting views, there's follows, there's clicks, there's comments. All that wraps into it. But the number one KPI, if you want to measure if it's going well, understand how many views, how many, how much, how many profiles, how many views it's reaching.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Right? I think we might have time for one more question. We have Gary, when you say B2B company should post on LinkedIn every day, is that our company page or the founder leader?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes, both.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Everywhere. Everywhere. We're getting the message everywhere, all the time.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It is. And, and, and more, more, more. If I ended this keynote right now and just dropped a million dollars in money on here and said, come and get it and left. Would you not just go and grab it? It's fucking free. It's free.

[Moderator / Event Host]

It's free.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Do you know how hard it was for you to get on television? Talent. Serendipity.

[Moderator / Event Host]

You don't know me at all.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Somebody had to pick you.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Serendipity. The right place, right? Gotta be in it to win it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Somebody had to pick you to be on telly. Everyone here can be on the new telly called social networks by just posting. This is insane. I'm telling you. All of you are completely and utterly confused on how big this. I'm being serious.

[Moderator / Event Host]

It's true.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The world. I say this because I think it's everyone, by the way, me included, every one of us is utterly confused on how profound this one micro moment is. There is not a historical comp in business and marketing history where the predominant attention of society was on a platform and that platform was willing to for you to get attention on it for free. These platforms are so big. Think about this. You're all business people. Use your common sense. It's so big that these companies are some of the biggest companies in the world by a small percentage of us buying ads on this thing while most of us do it for free. It's that big. Please don't blow it. I implore you. I flew from fucking America to beg you for an hour. I came here to fucking beg you. I'm here to beg you.

[Moderator / Event Host]

It's true. Tv. I'm in the wrong industry. TV is a dying art, as Rossford and friends would say. It's time to pivot. Pivot to social media.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Do you know how much a full page ad in a newspaper and billboards and radio ads and direct mail.

[Moderator / Event Host]

Not as much as it used to cost.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

These are expensive. They're overpriced now because the attention is. It's just. It's an incredible time. I think I've made my point. I hope I made my point.

[Moderator / Event Host]

I've gone over in time. Just one final word. If you want to underline something or just give that one piece of information, piece of advice for everyone in this room. Business owners, leaders, people building something special. What is it?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I got it. It's fucking free. Thank you everybody. Everybody. If you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episod. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.