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Gary Vaynerchuk
This is the GaryVee audio experience. Welcome to another episode of Tea with GaryVee. I'm ready to go. Aaron, you got something for me?
Aaron
Yeah. First question is from Matthew. I'm 44 years old and after 10 years I was let go from my job. I'm fully ready for whatever is next in my next steps. What should I do first?
Gary Vaynerchuk
44, let go of a job. What should I do next? I mean, I don't know. Like, there's a little more to that question that I need. You know, obviously you want to get another job. My biggest belief is that an enormous amount of people are going to be surprised and let go over the next 18 months because of not only AI, but just in general, you know, companies, you know, trying to be more efficient. Just the reality of the business world, it's getting more competitive. The biggest companies are getting bigger. You know, every day that Amazon gets bigger is another day that a retail store with 11 stores gets smaller. Right? So we're going through this time of change and the AI thing is a really big deal. And I think the best way to get a job, if that's what that person wants at 44. And again, so many of you have heard this over and over from me, but I have no idea why people continue to lag on this. We must put out LinkedIn content around what you know, what you like, what you care about. That's just like it. Like I, you know, I. You must share your information, your knowledge, your understanding of your craft in, in these environments. That's the issue, right? Like, I don't, I don't think people understand that. Fucking LinkedIn's your answer. I do not understand that. You know, like, what are you going to, you know, like you're not going to send resumes. We have to put out content on LinkedIn around your expertise, around coding, around management, around, you know, being an electrician, whatever the fuck it is. Like, we need content on LinkedIn. That is how people will get jobs. You must put out content on LinkedIn to get jobs. Jobs are going to be more competitive than ever and your basic resume is not going to cut it. And so that's that, you know, simple as that. Aaron. All right, let's move on.
Aaron
All right, next question is from Tara. I started Charlie Safari, a kids book brand that teaches about endangered animals and helps parents connect with their wild little ones. We've got one book out and two almost ready to launch. It's still early. We're learning as we go and making some costly mistakes. But how do you know when to keep something as a passion project versus when to double down and make it a full on business? After two years we have not made a profit yet.
Gary Vaynerchuk
It's the toughest question. Like the amount of people that quit three weeks before their shit that they spent four years on pops off is there's, it's a real number. It's happened quite a bit in the world. And then the amount of people that are like, oh, one more year, one more year and one more year and have spent another three years, quote unquote wasting their time, that's also real. It's a really hard question for me to answer on this show, but what I will tell you is you have to balance your regret with your tolerance for financial anxiety. Right? You know, that is the framework, you know, and I think that too many people are delusional and think they're rappers and like, you know, try to be a rapper for 20 years and it's not there. Like you have to look for signals you need to make some level of progress. But it's also okay to go backwards. So there's. This is a very tough question to answer. Generally I always err towards the place of putting out more social media content to drive sales. Like are you good at the marketing? Businesses need marketing. Marketing is the offense of business. And the reason I spend so much time talking about marketing is because it is the savior to so many people out here. My last question was marketing. Like you're gonna lose your job. I want you to get another job. I think you're more likely to get a job if you put out good information and videos of showing your knowledge and skills on LinkedIn than spamming people on LinkedIn and message form or sending in a resume in this scenario, selling those books if they can we can we pin garyvee.com attention if you have not team if you have not read this 40 page plus deck and implemented it and so many of you of the people on this show have and everybody on Instagram, please come over to GaryVee.com whatnot. I just, I, I really need people to push themselves on this because this fixes the issue here because the sales are not going to come miraculously to this book and then they are going to quit. So I focus on offense. Next question. Zoom or.
Aaron
Next question from Joe. I'm in a 9 to 5 job at a bank and I've been more stressed out than ever lately. Why it's to the point that I call out of work just to not feel the stress I've watched a lot of your videos about quitting your job if you're miserable, but in my case I have no savings and I'm actually in the process of filing for bankruptcy. What would you recommend to mentally prepare for this job? I'm at the point where I don't enjoy it. My manager is a micromanager and it's slow season for my pressure washing business.
Gary Vaynerchuk
To go apply to other banks. You know, quitting your job when you're in his situation is not practical. Quitting your job after you've applied to 900 banks, you know, on LinkedIn and Indeed and those other. And putting up your indeed profile, like that's practical. Like again, like we need to, you know, angel says say something in Spanish. I, I took Spanish. Can you give me my report card? Sid, can you, can you, Sid, can you put my Spanish, can you put my. I just need people to understand this is my report card. I don't know if this is going to zoom in here. It is, but it will. Like, I took Spanish twice. I got nothing but Ds. Look at, I took a junior and senior year. That's on the right side because if you look at my full report card, I actually failed Germany freshman and sophomore year. And in New Jersey, if you don't pass two years of language, you can't graduate high school. So I literally, literally the only word I can say in Spanish is hola. Anyway, by the way, my 8th grade Spanish name was Geraldo and just thought that was a fun fact for everybody if you wanted to know. Yeah, so yes, you should quit that job because you hate your manager. It doesn't sound like you hate the banking job per se. People don't realize. Like, I just don't understand this dwelling thing. Like if I hated my job, I'm applying to a. This is all about, you know, practicality. You know, yesterday we talked about ao, right, we talked about accountability and optimism. But there's a peo part of it as well because like if you actually get into practicality, like the practical answer to this question is fucking go apply to every bank in a 40 mile radius. Do you know, Aaron, I had like a real conversation like this with a friend and when I told them some version of this, they, they said no. Because the other bank in this scenario, it was a hardware store. I was like, apply to every hardware store. And he's like, yeah, but this hardware store is an extra 20 minute commute. This is what you understand, this is what's going on out there, right? Like it's just Complainer City usa. How many of you live in Complainer City usa Please put CC USA own it right now. Be vulnerable on fucking Halloween. Don't go eat a fucking Snickers and a Hershey Kiss, come in here and fucking own it with me and put CC USA in here because you realize you just are looking to complain. And I appreciate all of you. Queen Elizabeth 444. I appreciate you. Jared J. Let's own it. Stop being a complaining bitch. Stop it. Complaining doesn't work. It's all you do is you're, you're rolling in your own. You're rolling in your own. You hate your banking job, you're bankrupt. Get another banking job, man. It's it, you know, like, I don't know, like it's just real out here. Like do like everything's hard. I. I don't know. I do not know why everyone thinks everything should be easy. It's always been hard. It's always been hard. It's hard. And once you fall in love with hard, it gets good. Just fall in love with hard things like rips. All right, let's keep it moving. Jake.
Jake
Hey, what's going on? Can you hear me?
Gary Vaynerchuk
I can. My brother can. More importantly, can they hear you? Can you guys all hear him on whatnot? There we go. Finally. Day two. All right, Jake, talk to me.
Jake
So my cousin and I started a small side hustle about a year and a half ago in the children's edutainment system. I mean, teach kids about dinosaurs and fossils and paleontology and we use animatronic costumes and puppets to get that across. We have a large 12 foot long, 8 foot tall walking t Rex. We call them Terry the T Rex. We bring in schools, libraries, daycares, etc, so we're currently doing on the side a lot of hustle on the weekends. My wife's a teacher, she helps me out on the weekends. I work in New York City. We're out of Cranford, New Jersey. So like my cousin, he's work schedule four days on, four days off and we're constantly battling, like can't, you know, what are some indicators we should look at where at least one of us takes the plunge, goes full time versus still trying to do this on the side.
Gary Vaynerchuk
How much money is it making?
Jake
First year we did about 80 grand. And then this year Ron Pace to. To potentially double that. We're getting there.
Gary Vaynerchuk
And how much profit on that? 150. Will you do?
Jake
70%.
Gary Vaynerchuk
And what's who speaking?
Jake
A lot of it back in. We got another costume coming from, from overseas.
Gary Vaynerchuk
I got it. And who, and who's making the least amount of money or is the most miserable of the three of you?
Jake
It's probably a toss up. I would probably say my cousin but you know, he has three kids. I have no kids. Like you know, it's probably like I could take more of the risk I guess going full time like you know, but I don't know. It's a toss up. I think one of us though needs to be. What? Needs to be all in and like I have the fear factor of like leaving my full time job and, and trying this.
Gary Vaynerchuk
What's your full time job?
Jake
I work in city marketing. Comms. In the city.
Gary Vaynerchuk
At an agency.
Jake
It's no, it's for, for a fintech company but.
Gary Vaynerchuk
You do marketing?
Jake
Yeah, marketing comms. I'm like on the internal comms team.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Like old like comms life like pr, press releases and like hitting up media.
Jake
Some of that, yeah.
Gary Vaynerchuk
How much do you make?
Jake
About 130, 140 bonus.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, I mean I think you should quit and if it doesn't work out you should email me and I, I won't give you 130 because it sounds like you're doing old but I'll give you like 95 and teach you.
Jake
That sounds great to me. I mean I love the kid, love playing with the kids, with the dinosaurs, teaching them. I mean it's so much more fulfilling.
Gary Vaynerchuk
I feel like you're making a. You're making 170k in top line revenue on a business where no one's being able to really go in on it like you, if you went full time like it sounds like you're putting in the least right of time or like, like in like not that much because you're 9 to 5ing right.
Jake
Yeah, I mean, yeah, we're probably putting in, I mean mostly weekends. A couple things during the week that my cousin will do because of his work schedule. He's off. But yeah, if we were able to go five days a week, I mean just the summer alone, we could, we could go three jobs a day. Five days a week.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, I, I just, I just think that you need to quit bro. Because the numbers look good to me. Like 170. Could you imagine if you put 70 hours in?
Jake
Yeah, I do think about that a lot.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Well, what the are you thinking about? I think about a lot of too but you need to do bro. Yeah, you gotta, you got a backdrop now that like you've got a backup Plan. You're gonna go hard for a year, and if you suck, you're gonna work@vaynermedia.
Jake
All right, that sounds great to me. I mean, listen, it's. It's something I've been thinking about a.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Lot, so I don't give a. Who gives a. If you've been thinking about it a lot?
Jake
Just do it.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes. That's like, oh, I've been thinking about working out for three years. That's nice. But you're chunky. Like, you know, like. Not you, Jake. I mean, I'm just saying, this is an overall, like, you thinking about it means nothing. I've literally given you a full parachute, other than you have to live a little bit more conservatively for a little while and prove that you could do something modern here at Vayner because of the big leagues. It sounds like you're a T ball in marketing, but, you know, you should probably quit right now. Do you have any savings?
Jake
Yeah, yeah, I got savings. Yeah.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah.
Jake
Like, I've been.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Jake, like, you're pissing everyone off right now. You know that, right? Like, the amount of people that are pissed in the chat right now. And by the way, they shouldn't be pissed because you earned it. I'm proud of you.
Jake
So it's a lot of work. I mean, like I said, my. My. My wife's a teacher. Like, we're hustling on the weekends. I mean, we're.
Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm gonna say it again. Did you hear the words proud of you? They shouldn't. They're pissed. Yeah, but, like. But I'm. But I don't think they should be pissed at you. Like, I'm proud of you, you know, But I think you should jump 170. 150. Excuse me? Top line revenue with you not spending any real Monday through Friday time on it.
Jim
Yeah.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Are you kidding me? You're gonna crush. Plus, you should get out of the job you're in anyway because you're. The marketing you're doing is going to fall behind and you're going to get fired, and you can get fired anyway.
Jake
Yeah, it's not.
Vaibhav
I'm not.
Jake
It's not stability at all.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, exactly. Everyone's like, I don't want to leave my stability. I'm like, that's not stability. Doing press releases and hitting UP Media in 2026. In an AI marketing world, you're a young kid doing old. You're basically in your career, walking around with a cane. Hey, kids. You're not doing marketing, bro. Yeah, you know. You know that right?
Jake
Yeah. No, I know. It's. Yeah, I do.
Gary Vaynerchuk
The reason you like your job is it's easy and stupid. Right?
Jake
Yeah. Yeah, It's.
Gary Vaynerchuk
It's easy.
Aaron
Yeah.
Jake
It's not.
Vaibhav
It's not.
Jake
Not crazy. Difficult now.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Right? So it sounds like you're completely mailing it in, Jake. Sounds like you're choosing to go to a 9 to 5 that does nothing like work. That you're not growing, you're decaying. And you're choosing the easy path. You have savings, you have. You. You say you're hustling, but the reason you're able to side hustle is your job's a joke. You're looking at. You're like adjusting your fantasy football team at like 1 to 3pm on a Wednesday. Right, Jake?
Jim
Yeah.
Jake
Yeah.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Okay, so what the are we talking about here? I'm adjusting my Fantasy team from 1 to 3pm on a Wednesday.
Jake
Dude, no. Do you even have a fans? Do you have a fantasy team?
Gary Vaynerchuk
Course not. And not because I'm so busy, but because I can't play fantasy football because the jets are my love and I'm not going to adjust my love for fantasy football. My son has Drake May on his team and it's pissing me off.
Jake
Yeah, this was helpful.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Do you now understand what's happening in your life?
Jake
Yeah, I get it. I get it.
Gary Vaynerchuk
And I. I jerk off Monday through Friday instead of going. Living your dream. You've chosen easy.
Jake
Yeah.
Gary Vaynerchuk
The reason you don't want to leave your job is, you know, it's a joke.
Jake
I agree.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Where you're way better off to go take this jump. If it fails, you learn that you're not entrepreneur and you come work at Vayner. You make less money, but you'll learn. I'll be paying you to teach you. All right?
Jake
All right, Jake Snake. Don't forget it.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Jump, Jake Jump is your new name.
Jake
We'll come in, we'll do your next take your kids to work day at the headquarters.
Gary Vaynerchuk
You're no longer Jake the Snake, You're Jump, Jake, Jump.
Jake
All right. Jump, Jake. I like that.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Jake, if you don't quit next week, we're not friends.
Jake
All right? Thanks, Gary. I appreciate it.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Who's laughing in the back? Your cousin?
Jake
My brother. My brother's.
Gary Vaynerchuk
What just happened? What happened? What happened? He said his brother, they deleted. I think somebody that boss. I think it was his boss that he killed him. I think Jake's dead, guys. All right. Poor Jake went young. All right, let's keep it going.
Aaron
All right, this question Is from Annabelle. I am 30 years old and have less than $100 in my account. I want to start creating content, but I'm lost. I started working with someone where I block their daily life experiences. Do you think this is a niche to start from? And how do you think I can start putting myself out there? Because I have no social media presence.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Your money means nothing. Like whether you have $100 in your bank account or a billion. That meant nothing to the question. Posting on social and starting is completely based on self esteem and insecurity. Almost every single person watching this right now is not posting because they're insecure. Period. End of story. Well, I don't have anything to add. Well, I'm not that smart. Well, I don't look that good. Well, I don't this. I don't that. I don't this. I don't want my neighbors to say something. I don't. Well, Gary, it's my social. My friends are on this. I don't want them to judge me because like I'm a cool girl. But what I would post about is Legos. None of my friends know that I'm into Legos. If I'm listening to you, right, with the niches and this and that, Lego, like it's all the same shit, you know, like so do I think it's a good niche to film someone if that someone is me? Worked out for fucking Drock and Caleb and Babin. But if you fucking followed Drock, Caleb or Batman, it probably would have not worked out. Or maybe it would have, I don't know. So that's that insecurity. You're insecure. The hundred bucks means nothing to me. And is it a good idea to document someone and follow them around? Yeah, they're good. You know, you're 93 years old. Oh my God, you're a fetus. I'm so into this. Like I really believe it, man. I believe 80 year olds are young. What do you want from me? If you don't. Fuck it. What's this guy's name? Vaibhav. What's good, bro?
Jake
Hi, Gary.
Vaibhav
First of all, I'm very nervous and I can't believe I'm here. Thank you so much for all the things that you do. I have been following you since 2017 and I discovered you through your book Crush it. Then your videos. My question for you is that I have been practicing as a psychotherapist in India. I have been creating content for seven to eight years and my Instagram blew up in 2020 22. Yeah. And I've got like 22,000 followers there and occasionally some videos blow up to like 500k, 1 million or something. But recently the reach has been very low and I've got a few clients. So my question to you is like, how do I approach content to build my business and presence on social media as a psychologist in India?
Gary Vaynerchuk
You've got to get better. Meaning, you know, something's going on right now with my team. We've gotten better in the last three months. Like we just. And that really started with me because where my energy was, it always starts with you. Back to accountability. And then it goes on to Sid, his accountability, and then trickles down. We're better right now, we're trying harder. Like, I don't know what else to say. We're not quote unquote mailing it in. I think a lot of people that have your situation win and then just get into old behaviors and are doing the same shit. V, you have to try new shit. You've got to try different angles, you got to try different styles. You gotta do, you gotta write out your thoughts on mentality and mental health in the notes pad and then post that with a video following it up. And now you did a two post carousel that started with, you know, iPhone, notes and then your video. You've gotta read garyvee.com attention the deck and you gotta like really learn the details. You know, my answer to you and everybody who's watching is you've gotta get better at the craft. The algorithm is not hurting everyone, it's hurting everyone who's not good. Do you understand? The reach is down not because something happened to Instagram in India, the reach is down because you're not as good right now as you were in, in 2020. That's all and you know it. And then when that works, you will get more clients, just like you did before. Cause if you're at 22,000 followers and occasionally get 500,000 views, when you start getting one every week that gets a million views and you get to a hundred thousand, you'll get more clients. You've already seen that the attention gets you clients, right? And so you've got to think about pack platforms, algorithms and culture. Platforms are, you know, you're, you're lucky you're in India. There's like a billion platforms, right? All the different dialects and languages, all TikTok's banned. So there's all the TikTok clones. You got YouTube shorts, you got LinkedIn. Like you need to be on more platforms, then there's algorithms. That's understanding how the algorithm works. I already just explained that to you. Go. Readgaryvee.com Attention, Adrian, please pin that for everyone. Everybody who's on Instagram and other places. I am on whatnot. It's GaryVee.com whatnot and then finally, culture, brother. You know what's going on in India in. Or maybe you don't, but you need to know what's going on with what people are thinking about, right? Like, are they worried about the economy? Are they excited about a new band on tv? Is there. Is there something happening? Like, is there a restaurant chain that's crushing? Like, I don't know, like. Like it's really that simple. Like, you have to know what's going on in popular culture, right? So platforms, algorithms, and culture is how you get great at social content. Social content posting is free. Awareness comes from that free posting. When it's done well, awareness leads to relevant. Relevance is how you get aware. Relevance is the first way that people consider buying something from you. Oh, I like Courtney. I like what she says. That's relevance to me. Oh, now I'm considering things that come out of Courtney's mouth that she recommends. I might want to buy Relevance, consideration, purchase. That is a framework that is true. Please understand it if you don't chatgpt it. What did Gary Vee mean when he said relevance, consideration, purchase and fucking cook? B, you have to be better. V, you just have to be better.
Vaibhav
Got it.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Right. Makes sense to you, I'm sure, because you've been able to do it once and you're. You like, listen, if I can get stuck in ruts like I did for the last year, prior to the last couple months, anyone can. I was busy. I was focused on being an operator for Vayner X and vfriends more than being Gary Vee. I'm stretching Sid into ops at Vayner and other random things. It's just there's a million things that go into it, but we're better today. I'm dialed in like a dog. This hat is fucking fire. The wool, too. Do you see this? I need it. This is right. This is the. This might be my favorite hat that we made. No, I still like the ninja, but. And the yellow. Who's got the yellow rare one? Say I've got the yellow rare one. That's it. B, I wish you well, man. Go at it hard because, you know, it requires that. Such a pleasure. You got it. All right, let's keep this going? Erin, what do you got?
Aaron
All right, I'm a 70 year old woman.
Gary Vaynerchuk
You're a 70 year old woman. Okay, keep going.
Aaron
I'm eager to learn AI which I'm doing, but I don't have particular skills to go on YouTube and post some videos, etc. I do want to make some money for my retirement so I am not struggling for my expenses. But I don't know where to start and what I can do to start something on social media.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Live social shopping. I believe that the best way to make money on the Internet right now is live social shopping whatnot and TikTok Shop Twitch now has it. There's something called district you can check out talk shop live. There's all sorts of places you can go. I believe live social shopping is the number one way that people can make. Who here has more than 10,000 followers on social media and has made no money on whatnot? Please put up that in the chat. Say 10k. Say 10k send. Say 10k in the chat if you're that person. All right, all these people. You see this, Aaron? All these people that say 10k. I believe that if they were good enough to get 10,000 followers on social that there's. If they're also comfortable selling. Actually here. Let's go with that, everybody. If you're in the 10k crew, who's in the 10k crew and also comfortable selling something? Because some of you are not. A lot of people hate selling rips. You like selling Sid Court. So. So Aaron. No. Right. Everyone's different and that's great because, you know, Aaron's remarkable at production for YouTube, massive skill. But for the people that are 10k and like to sell stuff, live social shopping is the biggest opportunity in the world right now. I was with a guy yesterday who's one of the biggest wholesalers to flippers for 15 minutes. He wanted to say hello. He's built a huge community of people that flip if you sell like 14 items a day. I think he said something really cool. Like if you sell 14 items a day, like on ebay for a year, you make 150k. Like it was. I don't remember. I don't want to. But he said all the people that pay him to be in his mastermind, he said like 80% of them started because of my 2017 flip challenge. That's how impactful that was. And that was ebay. Now we have live shopping. Easier, easier. Now it's. And you want to be on ebay and these live shopping platforms. But I could not, I could not, could not push you all harder, harder to learn about live social shopping. And I love the 70 year old. You know what I like about a good 70 year old and a retiree? They can get into that antique thrift store, flea market, garage sale life, which get very lucrative. This guy Tech who I was talking to yesterday that I saw that talked about a guy in his group that in North Carolina this weekend bought a box for $5 that had original inaugural season Chicago Bulls, original jerseys and warm up gear, sent it to Heritage. One of them is $30,000 with a bid on it. Already the thrill of the hunt that you can get into wholesale dollar stores start buying from China and India and now with the tariffs, you've got Indonesia and Vietnam and all these new places that popped up that can do supply chain, you know, not to China's level, but become alternatives. Like there's so much opportunity. Please everybody learn what live social shopping is. Please learn what live social shopping is. Aaron. I believe in Aaron. Aaron, ask me a question.
Aaron
This question is from Salvatore's mom. If your 16 year old son wants to be a mechanic, but has never tried to actually put anything together or take anything apart, what advice would you give him and how would you support him?
Gary Vaynerchuk
I would make him do it. I think my advice would be like, Salvatore, I love you boy, but if you want to be a mechanic, you have to work with your hands. Like, hey, if you're someone to be good at basketball but never dribbled a ball, what would you tell him? Dribble a fucking ball, Salvatore. Fuck mom, you know the answer to this? What kind of question is this? Salvatore's mom, make the fucking kid shrink at something. Fucking make him do something. Salvatore's mom, I got an idea. Break your fucking dishwasher. Like break it and then say, yo, fucking Salvatore, fix it. And mom, I don't know how use chatgpt, bitch. I'm right, I'm right. Sid, what do you want from me?
Jim
Can you hear me, Gary?
Gary Vaynerchuk
I can hear you, Jim. I heard you last time and it sounds like whatnot's gonna be able to hear you. And they can hear you. And can everyone hear me? Start from the top, Jim, with those beautiful accolades that made my heart feel so good.
Jim
Well, as I mentioned, you are a humble person despite everyone thinking otherwise. No, they can't hear me.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Oh, I can hear you. I was agreeing with you that you're clearly very emotionally intelligent because you're right, I have so much bravado and all this stuff, but in My actions, my humility is my superpower.
Jim
Right? So let me start at the beginning. When I was a kid, my aunt sent me a Jets jersey. So I've been rooting for the jets since I was 7 years old. Wesley Walker, blind in one eye, my favorite receiver. I loved him.
Gary Vaynerchuk
And then number 85, my favorite. My. One of my favorite players of all time.
Jim
I went to St. Louis University, and one of the few players to ever come out of St. Louis University is Pat Leahy, number five. I've been carrying around. I've been carrying around hard to give to you for a really long time because I know number five is important for you, right?
Gary Vaynerchuk
I love Pat Leahy. He was our kicker my whole childhood. And he wore number five because five was the jersey my mom knitted for me. I felt a kinship to him other than his hairline was very similar to what your hairline is right this minute. Remember, he was, like, baldish. It was weird.
Jim
Well, he works now at the Home Depot in St. Louis, so my friend got me.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Fuck you. He literally works at Home Depot in St. Louis. I'm literally going there on a vlog to shake his hand. We're gonna clip this. We're booking it. I'm going to St. Louis in Q1 to the home Depot. Jim, I need you to tell me which Home Depot. Email me@garyfriends.com I'm literally going to go there just to shake Pat Leahy's hand. I might bring my friend Al. He'll enjoy it, too. I'm fucking going to St. Louis, everyone. All right, go ahead, Jim.
Jim
So when I read Crush It, I've done everything that you said. I have documented the journey. And after you started T with Gary Vee, I started the Immigration answer show. So I have done 935 episodes, hour, hour and a half, where immigrants can just call and ask me whatever question they want. Well, in the last year or so, it has shifted, very much so, from technical questions about the law to, like, they're scared, they're worried, they're nervous. And so I, I. Number one, I'm getting ready to hit episode 1000. So I was wondering if you would come on for, like, 20 minutes one day, we could record it.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Five. Five.
Jim
Five minutes.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes, sir.
Jim
I'll take it. I'll take five minutes. That would be great, but I'm in. What advice do you have? I love whenever you talk about immigrants, and I love your immigrant story. I talk about you all the time on the show, and everyone on the show knows who you are. What can I do to help immigrants sort of feel safer? Or messaging that you have by telling.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Them what life's actually about, which is you can't control what you can't control. You know what I mean, brother? Like, it's a very challenging time. People see this issue on both sides. I'm empathetic to how people see the world. Everyone's allowed to see it differently. No question. Immigrants, not only in America, but a lot of places around the world are in fear mode. Right? And the reality is, is that my number one thing to say to both, by the way, to both people who deeply, deeply are scared of immigrants, sadly, because people have weaponized that narrative, or in reverse, immigrants that are scared to be deported, is you cannot control anything, actually, and you must adjust to reality. And that's that there is. Watch this, Watch this, Jim. Hey, everybody in the whatnot chat, how many of you are struggling financially and emotionally right now? Please say struggling in the chat like real talk, just like real life. You know, let's be vulnerable. How many people said they're struggling? Live in America. Struggling financially and emotionally and live in America. Say America in the chat. This is what I tell my immigrant friends, Jim, who are struggling like living in America. Listen, I think living in America is remarkable. Land of opportunity. I still believe it at the highest levels, even more with what's going on with AI and everything, while people think less. They're like, I'm gonna get fired and it's over. In fact, you're gonna get fired and then start your dream life for a lot of people. A lot of people know, but a lot of people, yes. But you cannot control everything. And so, Jim, you gotta get to the root. The reason you like me is, and you've been following for a while, is I go to the root canal, not to the surface level. I'm not worried about getting you, like, some toothpaste that does white, you know, whitening. I want to get into the fucking root canal rips. So you need to get to the root canal, Jim, and tell them that you. You can't control how this is going to play out. You just can't. And you can't spend every day in fear. And you must wrap your head around that if you are no longer in the United States, you will go back to the country you were born in, and you will make a remarkable life. And you may find yourself back in the United States or in Portugal. That's taking a lot of people right now. Or in Canada. Like, there's so much opportunity around the World America is not the only place to find happiness. In fact, we just watch more than half of the chat speak about struggling both mentally and financially right here in America. So America is not the variable of happiness. You are the variable of happiness and making your happiness, and that's that. That's the real answer.
Jim
Gary, thanks so much. I got my first veefriends Resourceful Robin. I took the quiz, so I was really excited. I got a hoodie coming, so I'm excited about that. Thank you for everything that you've done. Thank you for literally changing my life and the life of all the immigrants that I've been able to help. You get credit for all that. You get credit.
Gary Vaynerchuk
No, you. You get credit, brother. I might have been a seed, but you fucking. You executed. And I. I cherish all of you in the chat and all of you watching right now that have taken a word or a video of mine and actually done something with it in a world where millions don't. And I applaud you, sir. And I can't wait. I hope to see you at that Home Depot with me, and I can't wait for my five minutes to be on the podcast. Please email me@garyfriends.com and we'll set it up.
Jim
Thanks, Gary. I appreciate it, brother.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Take care, brother. Stay well.
Jim
You're the best.
Gary Vaynerchuk
You're the best, Jim Hacking. All right, everybody, let's keep going.
Aaron
Okay, question from Kayla. What would you recommend to somebody who is passionate about being a business owner but also has a chronic illness that makes them bedridden for one to sometimes.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Two weeks per month, give themselves grace? I admire them so much. Like, don't beat yourself up. You have a chronic illness. You know, I really want to talk about grace this morning and the graceful goldfish, one of the underrated vee friends, and I can't wait to develop that character. I don't know if there's any graceful goldfish collectors in here. I want. I want. There was a woman. What was her name again? Kayla. Kayla. Kayla. I want you to give yourself grace, Kayla. Like, you have a chronic illness. You didn't control that. That was God's plan. And I think that you should give yourself grace. You can't hustle 18 hours a day, 365 days a year. You just can't. I want people who lost a loved one, like a parent, someone they really loved, God forbid, a child or a spouse. If you're struggling right now and you're watching, I want you to give yourself grace. Of course you can't. Go grind. If that happened to me, I'm not fucking building V, friends. The next day, I'm dwelling, I'm mourning. Please give yourself grace to mourn, Right? If you're starting your journey to building yourself back up and you've realized that you were suppressing very deep angers or upsetness towards a parent or an inappropriate uncle or an illness that your mother had with alcohol, like, give yourself a little grace now. Don't dwell in it. Don't dwell in it and lay in it forever, but give yourself some grace, everyone. Like, you can't go hard if you don't have fuel. People ask me, like, you know, yesterday it was like, what? Drugs? Gary V. On gratitude, fuckface. Happiness. Of course I can go hard 15 hours a day. I'm not weighed down. I really want you to give yourself grace. When I make mistakes, big mistakes, when I, Mr. Gratitude and Happy, like, wake up on a gloomy day, I'm like, eh. I'm not like, oh, shit, I suck now. You don't suck. Someone said I suck earlier in here when I was saying, who's struggling? I saw it in the chat. You do not suck. Mr. Santino said, My mom died at 48 from a stroke. She's all I had. Not true, brother. Mr. Santino, yes and no. Your memories of her, you know, are what you have now and your ability to find love in other areas, whether it's through companionship or even friendship. How many people here really love their best friend like that? Like, really love them like that? Court Sid. When I talk, do you know that the only time I get choked up is when I talk about my parents at award shows and publicly and. And the only other time I've ever, ever in my life got choked up that way was when I talked about Brandon. Even right now, I just said it as I said his name. That's how much I love him. So, you know, like, there's the people you're born into, and there's the people that. I did retire yesterday, but I'm back unretired. I did retire here live on this show, but I'm back one day later. You know, Ayo, I'm very. By the way, I can see it already. Is anyone here in doubt that I'm gonna be in a stadium with 40,000 people and be like, ao just gonna. Like, so give yourself grace. Fucking. I can't sell this hat. It won't be out for a long time. Dialed in, dog. This is fine. And it's woolly. It's woolly. Too. Anyway, that's where I'm at. Give yourself grace. Please, Please. I'm not tired. I just. The bags under my. You know, I'm 50 in two weeks. What do you want from me? And I've had the bags, you know, like, I haven't slept as much last month. I've been fucking a lot of red eyes, grinding. All right, next.
Aaron
Okay, question from Jimmy. How do I protect my personal brand? As deep fakes are becoming an issue with popular creators.
Gary Vaynerchuk
That'S undecided. In fact, I am about to send a big push to all of you to follow me on Sora too, where you guys can all make videos of me. I'm going the other way. I am going to use deepfakes to build my brand. So, for example, here, Sid, can you take this and play it over? This is something Brayden made on the team. We're testing. Yes.
Jake
It's a great word.
Gary Vaynerchuk
It's my favorite word still. Make it dial down three notches. All right, got it. I'm locking. You don't need to yell it in my ear. I'm much sure if you can hear it, they can hear it. I think they can. Can you guys hear it? Yeah. Yeah. You think ice will ever slow me down? You don't know your boy.
Aaron
The scream one is the best.
Gary Vaynerchuk
You think ice will ever slow me down? You don't know your boy. All right, there's that. Which one? Oh, this is amazing out here tonight. Hello.
Jake
Sorry, man. Didn't think I scare you that bad.
Gary Vaynerchuk
You got me.
Jake
My heart is racing.
Jim
My bad.
Jake
Seriously.
Aaron
Good one.
Gary Vaynerchuk
It's kind of peaceful out here. Hello? So I'm going the other way. I'm going to soon give you guys all an invite code. I'm going to post on my Instagram and all my socials. You're all going to find follow me on sora2 and I'm going to open up my entire IP and you guys can make videos of me all day, you know, so that's that. So I don't know. How do you protect your ip? You can lawyer up or you can take a surfboard and ride it. Big announcement. As you probably heard at this point because I had John from Stan on the show. I am an investor advisor to an incredible startup called Stan Stan Store. I'm sending you right now to GaryVee.com, garyVee.com Stan, go check this out. We've done a Gary B. Stan Store challenge, which actually has a weekly call with me. This is built for everyone who's been affected by, honestly by my overall content, the tech stack, all these features and the minimal costs per month that Stan Store has built is really the tool that was needed for this world that I envisioned when I wrote crush it. When I wrote crushing it. And this overall thing I'm thinking a lot about lately, which is the individual empire, right? This creator entrepreneur slash entrepreneur creator economist that I think is gonna eat up the oxygen. Very honestly, the thing that so many of you want in your life and the reason so many of you are not there yet is you've got the strategy for me. You've got the ambition within yourself, but you don't have the tools for you to fully maximize it. And I believe you can find that at Stan Store. Stan Store. But specifically, I want you to sign up for it through my challenge because I wanna get access with you. And plus there's a bunch of cool things. So if you wanna go see those cool things, go to garyvee.com Stan S T A N.
Date: November 12, 2025
Host: Gary Vaynerchuk
This episode of Tea with GaryVee hones in on some of the most urgent and real-life challenges people face today: losing a job, contemplating career pivots, starting something new, and dealing with doubt or external shifts (like AI replacing jobs). Gary brings his signature mix of tough love, practicality, and encouragement, hammering home the power of self-awareness, “offense” (marketing), being proactive on LinkedIn/social, and—importantly—giving yourself grace during periods of personal difficulty.
Listeners hear Gary answer live questions from callers, covering everything from being laid off at 44, managing stress at work, when to go full-time on a side hustle, failure, insecurity around creating content, and living with chronic illness as a business owner. As always, Gary’s tone is direct, engaging, and empathetic.
Gary’s mix of direct challenge and empathetic support makes this an essential listen for anyone navigating career disruption, side hustles, self-doubt, or a rapidly changing digital economy.