How to Monetize Your Passion in 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: The GaryVee Audio Experience – "How to Monetize Your Passion in 2025"

Episode Overview In this engaging episode of The GaryVee Audio Experience titled "How to Monetize Your Passion in 2025," host Gary Vaynerchuk delves into actionable strategies for individuals aiming to turn their passions into profitable ventures. Released on January 30, 2025, the episode features a series of dynamic interactions between Gary and various callers who share their entrepreneurial challenges and seek guidance on monetizing their passions effectively.

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1. Embracing Fear and Pursuing Passion

Callers: Sasha

Discussion Points: Sasha shares her journey of transitioning from a flower business to pursuing her passion for watercolor art. Initially overwhelmed by the potential of TikTok, she grappled with fear after watching the documentary Social Dilemma, which led her to deactivate the app. However, inspired by Gary's optimism, Sasha reinvited herself back into the social media space, finding success through live painting sessions on TikTok.

Key Insights:

• Overcoming Fear: Gary emphasizes the importance of not allowing fear, often propagated by negative media portrayals, to hinder progress. He encourages embracing optimism and practical action over succumbing to fear.

• Consistency is Key: Regardless of past successes or missed opportunities (like Bitcoin or influencer marketing), it's never too late to start engaging positively on any platform.

Notable Quotes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk [02:00]: “Don’t let the world sell you fear... Keep going.”
• Gary Vaynerchuk [05:45]: “You don’t have to be the king or queen of balance. You are balancing it.”

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2. Leveraging Local Networking and Inclusivity

Callers: Andre

Discussion Points: Andre discusses his efforts to create an inclusive local networking group in a small town in Middle Tennessee, where 25% of the population is Hispanic. By establishing a Spanish-language page and incorporating value-driven activities, he faced resistance when introducing content in Spanish, only to eventually receive positive feedback.

Key Insights:

• Cultural Inclusivity: Embracing diversity by catering to different linguistic groups can strengthen community ties and business relationships.

• Persistence Amidst Criticism: Gary advises not to be deterred by initial negative feedback, stressing the importance of consistent effort and adaptability.

Notable Quotes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk [12:00]: “How about not giving a fuck?”
• Gary Vaynerchuk [14:21]: “Have the most patience. The tortoise beat the rabbit.”

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3. Content Marketing for Professional Services

Callers: Austin

Discussion Points: Austin, a former CFO turned accountant with his own practice, seeks advice on transitioning from viral comedy sketches to content that attracts his target audience. Despite achieving significant impressions on platforms like LinkedIn, he struggles to connect with potential clients.

Key Insights:

• Balancing Content Types: Gary encourages blending entertaining content with informative, sales-oriented messages to attract and convert a targeted audience.

• Building Brand and Clientele: Emphasizing organic content creation over solely relying on ads can lead to more authentic engagement and higher conversion rates.

Notable Quotes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk [17:11]: “You're allowed to sell. It’s fucking America.”
• Gary Vaynerchuk [18:36]: “You’re allowed to make accounting interesting. They may make you laugh, but then you can go into detail next.”

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4. Navigating Entrepreneurial Setbacks and Seeking Capital

Callers: Mia

Discussion Points: Mia recounts her experience of running a high-level business that eventually went bankrupt due to poor partnerships and inexperience. Now seeking capital and trustworthy business partners, she feels lost and struggles with burnout fears.

Key Insights:

• Resilience After Failure: Gary highlights the importance of viewing failures as learning experiences rather than personal shortcomings.

• Proactive Networking for Capital: Reaching out to high-net-worth individuals through platforms like LinkedIn and maintaining persistence despite rejections is crucial for securing investments.

Notable Quotes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk [21:16]: “If you're only willing to take seven nos via email, then you don't have the stomach for a 1% life.”
• Gary Vaynerchuk [24:18]: “Burnt out is different than taking a gut punch and getting back up.”

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5. Balancing Business Growth with Personal Life

Callers: Dustin

Discussion Points: Dustin manages his silk hoodie business while navigating pregnancy. Concerned about maintaining business momentum and not letting customers down, he seeks advice on scaling and hiring to manage growing demands.

Key Insights:

• Prioritizing Personal Well-being: Gary underscores the importance of self-care and grounding oneself, especially during significant life events like pregnancy.

• Sustainable Business Growth: Rather than hastily outsourcing, focusing on consistent content creation and gradual, brick-by-brick growth ensures long-term sustainability.

Notable Quotes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk [34:14]: “You are a winner. Your business is not going anywhere.”
• Gary Vaynerchuk [36:15]: “Think about success in a 30-year window instead of a 30-week window.”

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6. Transitioning Careers and Providing Value in Large Organizations

Callers: Lucas

Discussion Points: Lucas, transitioning from door-to-door sales to marketing, seeks guidance on providing value to a large company like VaynerMedia. He aims to leverage his passion for content creation to secure a position within the marketing industry.

Key Insights:

• Unlimited Content Creation: Gary advises Lucas to maximize content production and mastery of social media algorithms to demonstrate his value.

• Direct Outreach: Personalized communication, such as emailing Gary directly with a clear demonstration of his marketing knowledge, can open doors to opportunities within large organizations.

Notable Quotes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk [43:12]: “Email me, email Lucas. Tell me everything you know about marketing.”
• Gary Vaynerchuk [43:31]: “Make unlimited content and learn the algorithms.”

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7. Overcoming Burnout and Maintaining Motivation

Callers: Mia and Dustin

Discussion Points: Both Mia and Dustin express concerns about burnout and the pressure of not letting others down. Gary addresses these fears by redefining burnout and emphasizing the importance of perspective and self-love.

Key Insights:

• Redefining Burnout: Gary differentiates between true burnout and transient challenges, encouraging individuals to recognize their resilience and capabilities.

• Staying Grounded and Perspective: Maintaining a positive outlook and focusing on personal growth over external pressures can mitigate feelings of burnout.

Notable Quotes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk [24:35]: “Life is only perspective. There is nothing besides your perspective.”
• Gary Vaynerchuk [25:55]: “Fall in love with trying to win versus winning.”

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Conclusion

In "How to Monetize Your Passion in 2025," Gary Vaynerchuk provides a compelling blend of motivational insights and practical advice tailored to aspiring entrepreneurs. Through candid conversations with callers facing diverse challenges, Gary underscores themes of resilience, consistent content creation, cultural inclusivity, and the importance of balancing personal well-being with business ambitions. Notably, his candid use of language and direct approach fosters an authentic and relatable atmosphere, inspiring listeners to overcome fears and actively pursue their passions.

Final Notable Quotes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk [41:34]: “Everyone needs to fucking love themselves more.”
• Gary Vaynerchuk [43:35]: “Happy holidays. If this podcast has ever meant anything to you, please go to Spotify or Apple right now and leave a review.”

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This episode serves as a valuable resource for anyone looking to navigate the complexities of monetizing their passions, offering a blend of tough love and actionable strategies to foster entrepreneurial success in 2025.

Transcript

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

This is the GaryVee audio experience. Hey everybody, before I go into today's podcast, if you're listening to this before 9:00am Eastern time, which I know a lot of you are dog walking the gym, just consuming on your travel, I'm live right now, probably if you're hearing this or shortly. I'm live at 9am Am I doing it on all my socials? I'm live on all my socials and then the questions themselves. The Tea with Gary Vee show is back. If you're unaware, the questions them on whatnot. So go check that out. We'[e-mail] live for that. Vfriends.com Veefriends is my Pokemon meets Marvel World. If you're not aware of it, I know some of you heard of it when I was doing NFTs two, three years ago, which I'm still doing and that's the ultimate collectible, but it's now become a huge cartoon. Veefriends.com cartoons. If you have somebody under 10 in your life, it's become a kid's book. It's become a big, big deal. Go check that out. That's Vefriends.com live, the Gary Vee show that you all loved. Tea with Gary Vee is live right now today at 9am See you on my socials. See you in a little bit. Hope you enjoyed today's podcast. I'm excited to be doing tea with GaryVee. I'm gonna do a lot in 2025. It's my home. I miss it. It was such a big deal in Covid and I hope to see you there. Hit me up on Twitter or on text at 212-931-5731 and let me know if you're excited about tea with GaryVee back. In fact, actually go to my Instagram post right now and leave a T emoji if you heard this. I just wanted to get a sense of how many people are cross pollinating between the podcast and Instagram. And I'll see you on T with Gary Vee today, 9am Eastern.

[Sasha]

I was following you and you said get on TikTok in 2019 and I did and it was blowing up. I do artwork and at the time, you know, I'm a single mom and it just was kind of overwhelming. I watched Social Dilemma. I got freaked out about this big app and I literally deactivated, deleted the whole thing. I had a video.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Let's, let, let's, let's even, you know, because I want to bring a lot of value to everybody who's watching the. This is why I hate when the world sells fear. Yeah, right. You watch a documentary on Netflix. The documentary's full objective is to scare people about the downside of social networks or technology. There's always downside. There's downside of automobiles. When cars were invented, people could drink alcohol, drive a car and kill someone. That didn't happen when we had horses. But it doesn't mean that that's the problem. And I'm sorry to jump in, but it's a big opportunity to help a lot of people. Don't let the world scare you. You were building. You were following somebody who was selling love and optimism and practicality and that was leading to good. Then you consume something that was selling fear for no fucking reason and it threw you off. Keep going.

[Sasha]

Yeah, I was in a fight or fight place and it was like, all right, I'm going to be scared. And family was freaked out about stuff too. So I was like, whatever. I got pushed that way. So I. I dropped that. I took over a flower business four years ago. I absolutely love it. I am doing what I love. It was my sister's business. I recently heard about somebody that was making a lot of money on TikTok who had started a year ago. And I was like, okay, maybe it's not too late. I'm still going to hop on there.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So I did so real quick on. Yeah, it's never too. For everybody who's watching. It's never too late to start doing good activity. Right. Like. Like just cause you missed Bitcoin or crypto or TikTok or influencer marketing or live social shopping, which we're doing right now. Like it's. There's never a bad time to start doing good shit. It's even like working out. Like I've had a good five weeks, even though I've had a bad 40 weeks. And it like feels good. Like it feels good.

[Sasha]

Yes, well. And I think pursuing your passion no matter what is the right choice. And you talk about that all the time. So doing flowers, I do feel like I am pursuing my passion. I get to create. The business is lucrative. I'm making better money than I've made in past. Stuff that I've done and I'm happy. But Gary, I'm still an artist. I'm a watercolor artist. And I still have something bigger that I want to share with the world. And it's like I see TikTok as an opportunity to do that.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You're right.

[Sasha]

I've started going live on TikTok for about a month. And I'm making money in my lives painting, I'm doing names, I do little dog portraits. And it just kind of hooked doing names. People want their names drawn.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You don't say. I'm so shocked to hear that TikTok live and shopping is working for you. Go figure.

[Sasha]

I'm like, I. I hired this coach. It's a girl who's been on TikTok since July just because I'm freaking inspired by her. And last week she made 20k just in the week. Going live. I mean, no, there's a huge potential to make money. Go live.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Who the are you telling? I know. So what's the question?

[Sasha]

Okay, the question is, so now I've got this business. I mean, I read your recent book. I listened to it on audio. I'm like, okay, I'm promoting my. My flowers. I need to be on different networks. But I'm also promoting my art. Now I'm taking an extra 10 to 12 hours a week going live, which isn't even enough. I need to be going live more.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah.

[Sasha]

I don't know how to balance it all.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm thinking you're balancing it. You're balancing it.

[Dustin]

You.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The reason you don't know how to balance it is because you're judging yourself. Good news. You're balancing it.

[Sasha]

Thank you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The end.

[Sasha]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Who. Why are you beating yourself up? What is balance? Who's the fucking. Where is this king or queen of balance? Where is this lord of balance that everybody's been telling me about? Who the fuck is the king of balance?

[Sasha]

Yeah, I. I want to be the queen of balance. And it's hard.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You are the queen. You're. It's. No, it's actually easy. You are the queen of balance. Let me show you how to do it. You, Queen Sasha, the queen of balance, have decided right here this morning at 9:07 Eastern that you are good at balance. That you're balancing it. You've decided.

[Sasha]

Thank you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, not thank you. Not me telling you. You realize what I'm actually saying? I'm not trying to be nice to you. I'm not trying to be kind to you. I'm trying to get you to wake up that there is no such thing. And either you decide you are balancing it or you decided you're not balancing it. 99% of the people that are watching Tea with Gary Vee right now have decided they're not balancing it. Cause most of the people in the World live in a place of fear. The reason you were susceptible to that documentary was. Cause most people are prepared to be scared.

[Sasha]

Yeah. I live in a place of love. I live in a place of love now.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Love is different. Love is amazing. I'm talking about fear.

[Sasha]

Oh, I know, I know because I've been there.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Correct. So very simply, you are balancing it. Who gets to decide? You're trying your best. You're doing the flower thing, you're doing the, the watercoloring thing. You're. You're a single mom and doing that thing. You're fucking living.

[Sasha]

I guess I like. Okay, the fear is that I'm taking away from my flower business and that is my bread and butter.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So is it your bread and butter? Because. Because I hear that you're starting to make money on your art online.

[Sasha]

I think the earning potential online is going to be a lot higher than what it is in my flower shop.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So it sounds like you're investing, so keep going.

[Sasha]

Yes, I'm investing. I'm investing.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Dustin]

No, that's it, that's it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And by the way, let's make up scenarios. And then January 19th comes and for some reason the US bans TikTok. Well, then you'll adjust and then Instagram will have lots. Like everything is manageable.

[Sasha]

Yes, yes. And I watched you talk about that too because I was like, what if it does disappear and you really brought just. It's okay. It's okay if it does and things.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Everything's okay.

[Sasha]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's called fucking life. Shit's gonna fucking happen. Somebody is gonna wake up today as a seven year old and have their father have a heart attack and change the course of their life. That will happen today.

[Sasha]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I don't understand how people are confused out here.

[Sasha]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

We, we are all collectively capable of dealing with our great grandparents. Laugh. Our great great grandparents are watching us in heaven and saying, these fucking pusses. These fucking pusses. The are they crying about? We had fucking famine. We had fucking world wars. We didn't have shit. The fuck are these kids crying about?

[Sasha]

Well, I, I get that. You know, I have a six month younger cousin who passed away from cancer about five years ago and it's like, that's a big wake up call. That is my baby cousin.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

If you, if you have a cousin who had this tragic event happen, that should absolutely not allow you to be concerned about what you're worried about.

[Sasha]

Totally.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Right. Like, yeah. What's going to happen? Let's play role play. You're going to spend too Much time on your art. And the flower shop is going to be down 18%. Who gives a fuck?

[Sasha]

Thank you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

As soon as that happens, if that goes on for six months and you're like, oh, fuck, the flower shop is down 16%, well, then you can fudgeing adjust back to spending more time on the fudgeing flower shop.

[Sasha]

Okay, that brings a lot of peace to my heart. Thank you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Good, good. Have the best day. Right, Dustin? Our fucking great, great grandparents are chilling in heaven right now. And they're just like, what the fuck's the matter with these people? They're like, they're. We have anxiety over dumb shit. Somebody. Somebody made fun of me. Fucking 18 year olds getting shipped off to Europe front lines to shoot Germans in the face or get shot in the face. And we're fucking sad because somebody left a comment that said, you suck. Like some girl doesn't like you. Who gives a fuck? There's four billion other girls. The fuck? All right, next person. Andre. What's good, brother?

[Andre]

Hey, Gary. How are you, Sir? Thank you so much for doing this.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm thrilled to be here with you, my guy.

[Andre]

Man, I am shaking because I've been following you for like the last five to six years and I have taken all of your advice. I bought your book Day Trading Attention, which I just gave away yesterday after reading it three times. I gave it away in my networking group, which is my question to you today, sir.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Go ahead.

[Andre]

I want to fill you in a little bit with what I do. I live in a small town in middle Tennessee. The population here is about 25,000 people. The U.S. census says that 25% of the community here is Hispanic, which I am a member of.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So 25% of the 25,000 people are Hispanic in this town in Tennessee. Go.

[Andre]

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And so I started a page called Shovelville in Spanish. So which is the town that I live in, love. So I update the community about anything that's going on. We've been able to establish relationships with a lot of, like the schools, the. The nonprofit organizations and all this, whatever is going on here. So we then took. I then took over a net, a local networking group that I. That had been here for the last 15 to 10 years. And so I started incorporating value. I really wanted to bring value to the people, to the attendees.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Andre]

And so, so we. The way that we do it is 30 minutes of open networking. The first 30 minutes. Then we do a 10 minute sit down video podcast with a different guest, a different business owner every month. And we only do it once a month. And then we do an activity afterwards. The last 20 minutes is an activity. Either we do.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I got it.

[Andre]

Network got it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So go to the question. Yep.

[Andre]

The problem is that yesterday we were highlighting one of the Hispanic businesses for the first time. We decided to do it in Spanish. And I've just been getting kind of some negative feedback on that. I don't know if it's because that you didn't.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That it wasn't in English.

[Andre]

Well, just a video podcast portion of it, but we had an interpreter there. I don't know if these people were. I don't know how to take it. I got.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

What, Just people crying like, yo, speak English. It's fucking America. Some dumb shit like that.

[Andre]

No, I mean, we. It was like. I don't know, it was confusing phone calls about. They, they, they said they didn't like it at first, but then they ended up saying they did. And so I didn't know how to feel about that.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, like, how about not giving a fuck? Yeah, how about that feeling? Okay, how about. How about taking it in and giving it thought? And if it happens seven or eight more times, maybe adjusting or maybe using AI to translate from. Into every language. But I think the first, the first piece of advice is how about not giving a. Next time you can do it in English. The next time you can do it in Korean. I don't know. Okay, like, what, what are they saying? They're going to beat you up or they're not going to give you money? Or like, what are we like?

[Andre]

I think it's. It's more of just maybe it's not something that they're into, you know, but it's the first time we've ever.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Bro. 99% of people aren't into anything. Meaning, like the biggest companies in the world don't have all 8 billion people giving a shit about. Did you feel good about it?

[Andre]

Yeah, I loved it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So do it again.

[Andre]

Okay, so I guess. I guess the next question would be how can I. Because right now the local chamber of commerce has kind of moved their date to the same date that we're doing our meeting. So a lot of our members had gone there.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So change your date.

[Andre]

Okay.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The fuck are you. What do you. What are you romantic about the date for? You mean the second Tuesday of every month? Great. If you're. If you're. The second Tuesday of every month and somebody bigger or somebody that also has attention, that fucks you up. Does it? You're allowed to make it the third Thursday of every month.

[Andre]

Okay. How do I go about reaching a younger demographic? Like maybe TikTok. Okay, those. Yeah, those 25 to 30.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You read the fucking. Bro, you read the fucking book three times. The fuck are you asking me that for?

[Andre]

I'm sorry, I just.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm with you, bro. I love you. Listen to me, Put your fucking two index fingers directly in your ear and go fucking execute.

[Eric]

Okay?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Got it?

[Andre]

Yes, sir. Yes, sir, man.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Have the best day. Eric. Eric, how are you? Where are you from? Hi. Hi, Gary, how are you? Thank you.

[Austin]

I'm in Orlando, Florida.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Amazing.

[Austin]

Yeah, so I'm a devout follower. I listen to all your content.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Thank you.

[Austin]

And I've been posting content online. So. I'm an accountant. I used to work in corporate America. The chief financial officer of a $50 million company. I left corporate America, have my own accounting practice. Congrats and thank you. I have a six month old buying a house and I want to start crushing more online.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Austin]

So I've been taking your advice, posting content. A couple of my videos took off, but they're comedy sketches.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Austin]

I got like a million impressions on LinkedIn this week, or actually like 2 million. But I'm not getting to my target audience.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, that's because that's. Are you making content that would hit your target audience?

[Austin]

So it's corporate America humor. Talking about, brother.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Are you making content that has your information on it as well? Like there's a part for you to put in the copy of your comedy skit. You could put, ps, this is a comedy skit, but I'm actually a former Fortune 500 CFO with my own practice. If you have any interest in working with me. Here's my email.

[Austin]

Should I push the sales part on all the videos?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You're allowed to do both. You're allowed to do both. Right? I called out the guy on TikTok that said, hey, Gary V. Why are you shilling mugs? You're always selling something. In fact, as you know, because you're a devout follower, 99% of my content, 99.5% of my content has no selling in it. But if I'm on a live shopping platform like I am right now, I'm going to put that up. And I think people should buy this mug instead of a crappier other mug. That's just what I believe. Because Be Friends is the next Pokemon. At least that's what my mom says. So you have to understand, like, there's. You're allowed here's the funny thing about selling. You're allowed to sell. It's fucking America. On the other side, people are allowed to not buy. I never expect anybody to buy, but I'm always happy when they do. Does that make sense?

[Austin]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So of course it's okay to sell and some content. Like, I just told you, you could have the content and the selling. Other content, you could just have the selling. You could literally make a video that might not get a million views, but it might get 100 views, where you're like, hey, this is what I do. I'd like to do business with you. But the good news, you get 100 views of that and you get three customers. That might be better than getting a million views of comedy with no customers. Yeah, Both are allowed. The answer to your question is and, and, and, and, and, and you're allowed to do comedy, and you're allowed to have a very boring accounting video. You're allowed to make more content. This is fucking the best part of social. It's free.

[Austin]

Okay? So my roadblock I've had was how do I make accounting not boring?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And you're saying you can't make accounting not boring. It's boring. Yeah, but that's okay. Like. Like, sometimes I'm very serious. Sometimes I'm silly. Sometimes I'm ridiculous. Sometimes I'm stoic. Like, you're just allowed to, like, make accounting interesting. They may make you laugh, like, but then you can come back on the next one and go very detailed and go into a very big nuance of what the new administration did with this tax deal. Don't try to make accounting cool. Just make all of it and let the chips fall.

[Austin]

That's what I was doing. I was trying to make topics easy to understand, and I felt like I was doing.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

But that's okay to do both. I'm telling you, that's okay, too, because you might have a viral video. Get 17 million, and you put the PS in there, and you did get six clients. What you're missing out on, which everyone gets fucked up on, is the game is about and not. Or. And boring content. Entertaining content. Left field content. New tax. Yes, yes, yes. And. And. And Every platform. TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram. This is a fucking gold rush of opportunity. These platforms are free. Yeah.

[Austin]

LinkedIn video has been going crazy. It's really a great opportunity, and I appreciate you sharing more.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

All right, who do we have on the show?

[Mia]

Hi, how you doing? My name is Austin.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Austin, great to see you, brother. Where are you from?

[Mia]

I'm from Utah. Good morning.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Love it, man. Pleasure. Good morning. Nice and early for you.

[Mia]

Yeah, well, I'll keep it super quick with you. So I'm 23. Long story short, I got an entrepreneurship about two years ago. I ran a pretty high level business, but it went bankrupt and now I'm kind of just stuck in that phase of like innovating.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So wait, you ran a high, high level business, but it went bankrupt? Did you learn from the missteps?

[Mia]

Yes, I bad business partners. I was young, inexperienced, and I failed a lot. But I'm carrying that as motivation into my next.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's great. I mean, given that you're this young and you've already learned those lessons, it's a real fucking back to the dude who's like, how do I stop? How do I stop sucking in life? Some people with a bankruptcy decide that they suck. You have decided. It's a learning experience. I was young. Let me take that. L. I learned. I'm still young as shit. Let me build from here. And I'm fucking proud of you for that, brother.

[Mia]

Thank you. I appreciate it. And the big part for me right now is I've kind of been in this gray area for the past year and a half, travel the whole nation, trying to find my answers on what's next. And I think I finally have the really good idea I want. But I'm not financially heavy and I'm kind of lost on like, where do I go for the capital? And like, what's the best way to find these business partners that I can actually trust?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I mean, the capital, high net worth individuals is always a great place to go. And so it's like literally like googling or chatgpting like thousand richest people in Utah and then sending respectful messages to them on LinkedIn. And all you need to do is go one of 180 or 250 or 7. People always say like, what do I do? I'm like, reach out to people. The then they're like, well, I have. And I'm like, well, how many? And they're like seven. I'm like, no, no, 7,000. Like, if you want to live a 1% life, like you want to live a 1% Life, right? You want to have your own business and be successful. That's a 1% life.

[Mia]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

If you're only willing to take seven nos via email, then you don't have the stomach for a 1% life. If you're willing to sit down and eat shit for the entire month of January, because for 14 hours a day you're emailing every fucking person that you could possibly find that has money anywhere in the world. Because you're doing the research and you're sending the emails and you're connecting on Linked and you're, you're just being respectful and doing it the right way and not too spammy and then following back up a month later. So you're not desperate like looking for one person to say yes to start the process. Well then now you're living a 1% life. Okay, does that make sense?

[Mia]

Yeah, it does, it does.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, you're not going to know if they're trustworthy. The good news is you're not looking for partners, you're looking for investors. So does that make sense?

[Mia]

Yeah. No, it doesn't. And with my first company I brought in business partners because I want real.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Quick, real quick retro boom89 says, why does it have to be on LinkedIn? It doesn't. But LinkedIn is such a professional place that a lot of high net worth individuals are going to respond better to a LinkedIn message than they are on email. Where to get a lot of span or a fucking DM on Instagram. Like, you know, you got to keep those things in mind.

[Mia]

And then last, last question for you. I know a lot of people want to come up. My, my biggest challenge I have been facing though is not getting burned out after failure because you know, failure is inevitable in the part of entrepreneurship.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

But I'm not burned out. I could just tell by your energy, don't let the fucking world sell you on this burnt out shit. Burnt out is different than took a gut punch getting back up slowly like every. This is the problem with everyone in today's society pushing on the kids. You're burnt out, you're depressed. Like we used to call this 20 years ago, like sluggish or like a fucked up day. You know that video that's viral that like shows the guy walking into the fucking like the side of the door and it's like if you were born in the 70s, you're like, you don't even in the 80s, you're like. And the 90s, like. And then like there's a, there's. I hate that because I believe in fucking Gen Z and Gen Alpha the most. But what they have, and I feel bad for them, they've bought into this bullshit, bro. You're not burnt out, you're fucking on five. You fucking, it's fucking 7:33 in the morning in Utah and you're on the fucking tea with Gary Vee show fucking talking about building your future. You're a fucking go getter and ambitious and a winner. But this fucking society has fucking sold you on. How do I deal with burnt out? It's not burnt out. You fucking took a micro l and you're fucking like. I don't know. You got punched in the face, you chipped the tooth, you got a little blood, you're gonna stop bleeding. You're gonna fix your tooth and you're gonna go back out there. You understand? Of course. You're fired up because a grown ass man is telling you your face. Stop listening to the of society trying to tell you you're burnt out. You're not burnt out, bro. You think you're. You think you're burnt out.

[Mia]

I think. I don't think I am. But like I, I don't.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That you're not delusional. Stop listening to fucking losers trying to make you lose. I've never told anybody you're burnt out. You know who tells people they're burnt out? Philosophical fuckers who can't. Do you know what Misery Loves Company is?

[Mia]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's what the fuck is going on.

[Mia]

So I just gotta block them out. Just do me.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Block out everybody. Block out people like me too. Block me the fuck out. Who's gassing you up? Block out every person on earth.

[Mia]

Perfect.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You understand?

[Mia]

I do.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Listen to everybody but hear no one right. Because you got to stay humble. You got to check yourself. You don't want to become delusional, but don't let everybody or anybody, excuse me, fucking dictate your soul. Burnt out. It's fucking 7:33 in the morning in Utah. This man is showered with a fucking coat and hat on. Fucking asking business questions on fucking livestream on an app that he probably had to download for the first time. Bro, you're a winner.

[Mia]

I guess my goal is to win even more, you know?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Good. But let me tell you how to win even more. Fall in love with trying to win versus winning.

[Mia]

Okay? That's a good perspective.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You understand?

[Mia]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Fall in love with the fact that you're trying and you're hungry and you're competing and you're in the arena. Not sitting around saying you're burnt out. Everyone. You're in the arena, bro.

[Mia]

I'm pumped up now. I'm ready to work. I feel like out of the hole. Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, dude. It's a. Because. Because you weren't even in the hole. This is the problem with society right now. Trying to tell everybody it's all bad. It's all good.

[Mia]

Yeah, yeah. It's perspective. It really is.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's. Bro, life is only perspective. There is nothing besides your perspective. There is nothing else. There's nothing else. It's all fake. I'll tell you why is150,000 a year a lot of money or a little money? Perspective. Perspective, yeah. Is having a boyfriend or girlfriend right now a good thing or a bad thing? Perspective. You saw. I don't know. Were you watching earlier when Sasha was on, that young lady she was building, then she watched the social dilemma documentary. Scared the out of her. Like, what. What did that accomplish? Stop letting fear have any power over you.

[Mia]

Hey, well, I'm hyped up now. I'm. You've. You've given me all the answers that I've needed. I'm gonna let somebody else get up here.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No. Love you, bro. Good luck. Happy holidays. Love you. Right, guys? Gals, like. All right. Kristoff.

[Eric]

Hey.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Hey. Oh, hey, brother. What are you laying in bed?

[Eric]

Yeah, basically.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah. That's good, bro. What are you doing? Kristoff, what the are you doing here? For us, brother. I get it, bro. Turn it around and tuck it in. Let's go, bro. I cannot.

[Eric]

Okay.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

All right, good. What's up, Kristoff?

[Eric]

Okay.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Hey.

[Eric]

How are you?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Hey, brother. I'm. Well. You?

[Eric]

I'm. Yeah, yeah, I'm good. I'm a little bit stressed.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Eric]

But doesn't matter. Okay. Basically, I have a question to you because I'm from Poland, but I created this motorbike rental app, you know, and we started in Indonesia. Basically, it works like Uber Airbnb. We connect the motorbike owners with the clients, like tourists, you know.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Very nice.

[Eric]

But everything is. Everything is done in the app. So we can book rent a motorbike, like, in, like, you know, on the spot.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I understand.

[Eric]

Right now in this moment, you know. Yeah. So basically, I have a question, like, how to market, like, to tourists, basically, in Indonesia? Because I have, like, a problem in Indonesia. Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

For people that are going to Indonesia.

[Eric]

Yeah, basically.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

How much? How much. How much organic social media content are you making on TikTok and Instagram for the business?

[Eric]

A lot, but only in Indonesian language because, like.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I understand. Yep. I understand. You've got to make.

[Lucas]

Yeah, because.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Go ahead. I know where you're going.

[Eric]

Yeah, no, because. Because I thought that we'll have problem, like, with. With getting the partners to the app, you know, to getting the motorbikes, but.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, no, that's good. I'm glad that you did the Indonesia Thing, but just like I told the gentleman earlier, it's an and not an or. You've got to do it in Indonesia, but you've also got to do it in English and in Spanish and you've got to do it all over. The number one opportunity for startups to get customers by a country mile right now, Christoph is organic social media. It's not even close. Okay, so the content, you just have to make more and with AI and with being in Indonesia and Poland, there's very good costs on labor and talent. You've got to make a bigger commitment to that because that's how you build brand and customers.

[Eric]

Yeah, yeah, but you know, like I thought I can reach them with ads. Like, but basically when I'm targeting like different languages within a country, I basically also reach languages that are native to this country.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Like, you know, I understand, but. But instead of running ads with creative that you're not sure is going to convert, if you made organic creative and see if it actually indexes well through the algorithm and then turn those videos into ads, you'll convert much better. The biggest issue with ads is people focus on the media when the reality is the variable of your success will not just be who you target, it will be what the message and the creative is. And now that organic social is a place where you get basically creative testing for free, you need to go all in on that.

[Eric]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, true.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm telling you now everybody understands that social media ads are good. Now everybody stands that Google Ads are good. But 20 years ago when I was yelling about Google Ads or 25 years ago, people made fun of me. And 15 years ago when I said social media ads were good, people made fun of me. And now when I'm telling everybody, as a sophisticated startup like you have, you need to get serious about organic social creative. People are laughing because they don't think it's scalable, they don't think it's converting as well. They don't understand that it's building brand while testing creative that you can then use for performance.

[Eric]

Yeah, yeah. You know, I want to start it like you know, to creating content in English.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So you have to do that. Who? The Indonesia rich 20 year old kids?

[Eric]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, you're right. No, I just thought it would be much easier to get customers only using.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, I understand. And good news, good news because, because.

[Eric]

I have a guy, I have a guy from Indonesia who's creating content in Indonesian, but I'm doing like, you know, using the chat GPT. I'm You. I'm. I'm creating like, you know, all the scripts for him and recording.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I get it.

[Eric]

So it also, you know, you need more. And I'm. But yeah, but I'm like a one month show, you know, like I'm doing like everything. That's.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I get it. I mean, but you want. You want to build a big business. I was a one man. My life too. You got it.

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Just be patient. A little patience and a little execution.

[Eric]

Yes, yes, yes. This is, this is the thing, you know, patience like everybody.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Of course. I get it.

[Eric]

I'm doing this with my friends and she's. Less patience.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's right. By the way, whoever's the most patient wins the race. The tortoise beat the hair, brother. The tortoise. The turtle beat the rabbit. Why do you think that story resonates and is such a legendary story? The rabbit won. The radical rabbit rips beat the tolerant tortoise. Excuse me. The reverse. Thank you. The self aware hair lost. The. The tolerant. Oh, I like the tolerance one. Anyway, brother, that's it. Kristoff. Happy holidays.

[Eric]

Yes.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Who's up now? Hi, Mia. Hi, Mia. Where are you from?

[Dustin]

I am from Atlanta, so.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Amazing.

[Dustin]

Basically I'm doing it by myself. I did listen to your videos forever ago. And so I decided I was just gonna start a brand talk on social. It took off. I like have coined the term Vegan Silk on YouTube. It's not YouTube. Jesus. On Google. So I'm number one for that. That's my term. That's my brand. I have silk, real silk hoodies. And it's just all about real silk. Like quality silk, whether it be vegan or real.

[Mia]

Right.

[Dustin]

Because search it on the Internet, you end up with satin. That's all well and good. I've been doing it by myself now for two years. And now I'm pregnant and it's hard to put out.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Congratulations with everything. Hold on, hold on, hold on. The. Are we talking about business? When you have this incredible moment in your life, congratulations. Baby, baby, baby. You're not dropping your other baby. Your. Your baby business is chilling while you're baking the greatest thing that ever happened to your life. I promise you your business will be there. This is. Everybody's scared, darling. Listen to me, Mia, Everyone. You like that dust? Okay. Thank you, Dustin. Damn. Dustin gave me. Dustin doesn't do that. A very. Dustin. Like, maybe it's because he's eating the bagel. Dustin's very excited about this bagel me. Listen to me. Your business is not going anywhere. This is what everybody's scared of. They're like, damn, the baby's going to come. I'm going to be my eye off the other business and when I come back to it, it's dead. If you were good enough to get it to this point, you're going to be good enough to do it again. You're stressing, you're being scared instead of focusing on the real shit, which is you have a fucking miracle. A human is growing inside of you right now, Mia. A fucking human being is growing inside of you.

[Dustin]

It's cool.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, it's better than cool. It is the fucking actual best. There is nothing on earth. There's no entrepreneur better than mother Mother number one. Entrepreneur number two, you're about to be that and you're worried about some dumbass silk robes. Get the fuck out of here.

[Dustin]

But like I still have another person to take care of. So this is like, this is our whole thing, which we do. My other little person helps me with the business. Now I have making a new one.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And I'm proud of you.

[Dustin]

I feel like it's time to, to grow the business so it's not just me. And I believe in organic because at this point I tried, I tried to get somebody to help with the shipping. I shouldn't have outsourced. I tried to get somebody to help with the marketing. My organic performs 10,000 times better than any marketing. I just talked to somebody who said SEO is best because since I'm on page two of a lot of things, it's better to be on page one. And that's where I need to focus. But I genuinely just don't know who to hire.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Listen to me. Make content. SEO is good. Page one is better than page two. But right now what you have is you. Sometimes you have money, sometimes you have people, sometimes you have you. Right now you have you.

[Dustin]

Right?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Make content.

[Dustin]

Okay, so more. Okay, so if that's the case, then if I do expand, it should be somebody else to assist me with making content so I could just stay focused.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

On what?

[Dustin]

On, on the business. Because like I said, it's, it's. I have.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Listen to me, listen to me. What if you thought about this being successful in a 30 year window instead of a 30 week window. What if I said to you this, think about this in 30 years of like slowly, day by day, brick by brick, it getting better versus you're gonna fucking crush it and sell the business and buy an island. You do know that this perspective is what fucks up everybody.

[Dustin]

Okay?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You don't understand how remarkable what you've already pulled off. You're already further along than most. You got something. But if you just listen, you're in a chapter in your life. Give yourself some grace, girl.

[Dustin]

Okay?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Give yourself some grace.

[Dustin]

There's different priorities.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

There's different seasons in life. How old are you? 35. You're a baby, okay? You are. I was 34 until I left my dad's liquor store. All this Gary Vee shit didn't even start until I was 35. Start. You got time. What you need to focus on is stay healthy so this baby comes out right? That's what you should be thinking about. Enjoy the fucking holidays. Listen, you know I love a good hustle and build your shit. It's just like. Just don't let anything get too crazy. Like, fucking get it all settled. Like, it's not going anywhere.

[Dustin]

Well, so that. That's the thing that I think that I was thinking about the most. Like, because I'm doing so much, I already have, like, thousands of customers. So my thing is, I don't want, like, they get kind of left. When I have bad weeks or tired weeks, they get left, and I.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

They're not left. I promise you, your customer's biggest thing on in their life is not your silk humility, but it.

[Dustin]

No, no, no. I'm saying. But a lot of people have allergy issues. That's why. So I really.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By the way, that's beautiful. And I'm. I fuck with that. I love that you've got that element. But I promise you, if you have a bad week, your customers are gonna be okay. It's unlikely they even thought about you.

[Dustin]

Well, they email.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Listen, I get it. But not all fucking 15,000 of them or 4,000 or 2,000, like, I'm telling you. You're just putting too much pressure on your chest. I can smell it from the screen.

[Dustin]

And just. If it's slow, that's okay.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah. Because what about when you know, again, I don't know how this pregnancy has been for you, but, like, some days you're not feeling well, or some days you're.

[Dustin]

I've been sleeping. Like, if I sit down, I fall asleep.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Baby. Good. Slow.

[Dustin]

Okay?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

If you went to sleep between now and January 1, 2026, and then hit the ground running and. Listen to me, if you went to sleep right now, closed your eyes and went and slept, and you woke up and it's January 1, 2026, and you're like, yo, what the? And the business was slow. And what the. You need to Resuscitate it. You've got the fire in your belly to have that proper by March. So what the are we talking about? Yeah, so what are we talking about? Okay, we're talking about what? Everybody's struggling with it. Just for some reason, we all just decided to beat ourselves up instead of loving ourselves for what we are doing. Baby, you're going harder as a pregnant woman at 35 than 90% of 23 year old dudes complaining about dumb the. Are we talking about?

[Dustin]

I want to be a good mom.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I don't know. Well, if you want to be a good mom, then you should ask that question, not how to do SEO.

[Dustin]

I know, but my kid, like, she loves this whole thing. She.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Of course she does. You're showing her.

[Austin]

By.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By the way. By the way.

[Dustin]

By the way, you drop it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, you're not dropping. You've already shown her. Why do you think she loves it? She looks up to you and she sees you doing it. You are winning. Okay, baby, you're just beating yourself up for no fucking reason. You need to give yourself grace. People need to fucking. I'm doing this for you and every. All 5,000 people that are watching right now. We need to love ourselves more.

[Dustin]

Okay, I got it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I know. I know you got it because you're already doing it. You just decided to look at the half glass full versus the half glass empty. You know you look at empty instead of full.

[Dustin]

Not really. I just didn't want to let like, I feel like since I started the problem because of my child and I'm helping other people who have asthmatic children that can stop coughing at night, I can't let anybody down. I don't want to let down my baby. I don't want to let down a new person and I don't want to let down these moms and people who are.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Let me tell you the best. Let me tell you the best way. Let me. Let me give you the fastest path to letting everybody down. Putting so much pressure on yourself, to not letting anybody down that you burn out and you do nothing.

[Dustin]

That's where I'm at right now.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No. Okay.

[Dustin]

Well, thank you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You. As someone who doesn't want to let anybody down either, I focus on me being good and grounded first. How the am I going to help everybody if I'm not good? Yeah. How do I do that? By saying I'm just a human and I'm just trying. I'm flawed, I'm. I got problems, I got mistakes. I'm just a human, but I'm trying out here.

[Dustin]

Okay, Cool things. Thank you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You're welcome. All right, got five minutes. Let's get one more in here. We're gonna be doing a lot of tea with Gary Vee next year. Who's enjoying this show? Put enjoy. Let me know. Keep me motivated to do it next year.

[Lucas]

Holy shit.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Lucas. What is good?

[Lucas]

Leave this shit.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Gary V. Where are you, brother?

[Lucas]

Before I say anything, I'm so glad you brought back the tea with Gary V. I've been following you for years. I loved this show before.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Thank you, brother. Where you at? You at school? You just walk out of school or something?

[Lucas]

No, man, I was in bed. I've only got three hours of sleep. But I saw you doing the show and I saw it's gonna be on, so I had to walk out of the house.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Let's go, brother. Where you. Where are you at? Where you. Where are you living?

[Lucas]

Yeah, man, that's a great question. So I'm actually based in Boston, but I'm in Dallas. I'm knocking doors right now. You're gonna love it. Door to door sales with an alarm company. But I honestly found a passion in marketing and content creation. I started posting, I had some videos go viral, and I really just want to transition out of sales into marketing, get into a marketing.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So make, make, make unlimited content and learn the algorithms. Did you read day trading Attention yet?

[Lucas]

Yep, I'll.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Let's do the audio Bic, brother. Just do that in the same grind that you have in door to door, knocking in between doors while you're walking down the street. Make content, keep learning the algorithms. Get better at TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Learn the algorithms, learn culture, learn best practice thumbnails, first three seconds of a video. Learn the fucking game. Pound it. People will reach out to you. We're literally at VaynerMedia and I think we're the top marketing agency in the world right now. We are literally DMing people that we see doing good content, trying to hire them. It's real life.

[Lucas]

Okay, so then I got a question for you with VaynerMedia. I wanted to be there for years. Obviously, you know, it's a big company. How can I provide value to a company as big as that and kind of show?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Do me a favor, email me, email Lucas. Do me a favor, email Sid. Sid, what's your email? Jesus. Email Gary at v@email garyvfriends.com Lucas put It's Lucas from the show. Tell me everything you know about marketing. Let me see if we have a residence program. Let me see if I can get you into it.

[Lucas]

Gary, thank you so much. I really appreciate it, man. I love you. I love you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I love you back, brother. Happy holidays. All right, Lucas, join me for tea with GaryVee. All of next year, I'm bringing back the show. Heavy. Gonna be talking about a lot with live shopping, all that. You guys ready? Run the mud. Run em. I'll see you in a little bit. If this podcast has ever meant anything to you, please go to Spotify or Apple right now and leave a review. By the way, even if you give me a one star review cause you think it's shit, I respect it. But just leave a review. An actual review, four or five stars. And the actual details of why. Yeah, that would mean something for me. So thanks.