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Old-School Thinking is Killing Your Business – Here’s How to Fix It | GaryVee Q&A - The GaryVee Audio Experience | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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Old-School Thinking is Killing Your Business – Here’s How to Fix It | GaryVee Q&A

The GaryVee Audio Experience

Tue Mar 11 2025

Summary

Summary of "Old-School Thinking is Killing Your Business – Here’s How to Fix It | GaryVee Q&A"

The GaryVee Audio Experience episode titled "Old-School Thinking is Killing Your Business – Here’s How to Fix It | GaryVee Q&A," released on March 11, 2025, features a dynamic Q&A session with Gary Vaynerchuk, alongside Sebastian Jimenez, CEO and founder of Rilla, and serial entrepreneur Lance Bachman. The discussion primarily revolves around the critical need for businesses to embrace modern technologies, particularly AI and social media marketing, to stay competitive in 2025.

1. Embracing Technology in Business

Gary Vaynerchuk opens the conversation by addressing the resistance some business owners have towards adopting new technologies. Drawing from his personal experience, Gary emphasizes the inevitability of technological integration in business operations.

Gary Vaynerchuk [00:45]: "Technology is undefeated. You could cry about AI, or you can put in the work for 30 hours and read and learn and realize how you're going to weaponize it for you."

He underscores that ignoring technological advancements like AI and social media marketing can lead to significant business setbacks.

2. Managing and Motivating Teams to Adopt New Technologies

Lance Bachman probes into Gary’s approach to managing people and fostering an environment that embraces innovation.

Lance Bachman [04:15]: "You don't talk that much about technology. You talk about people and how to manage people and how to get people to embrace new things."

Gary responds by highlighting the importance of accountability and direct communication within leadership teams. He stresses that leaders must take responsibility for their team's performance and be willing to make tough decisions to implement necessary changes.

Gary Vaynerchuk [04:33]: "100% of everything that's not going well is 100% your fault."

3. The Power of Branding as Business Arbitrage

The discussion shifts to the significance of branding in gaining a competitive edge. Lance Bachman introduces the concept of brand as a form of business arbitrage, which Gary passionately agrees with.

Gary Vaynerchuk [19:56]: "Brand is the ultimate arbitrage. What do you think religion is? What do you think Nike is? There is nothing else."

He explains that a strong brand allows businesses to attract customers organically, granting them pricing power and reducing reliance on transactional sales methods like SEO.

4. Leveraging Organic Social Media for Lead Generation

When asked about strategies to increase leads, Gary outlines a straightforward yet effective approach centered around organic social media.

Gary Vaynerchuk [26:08]: "Make as much content as you humanly can every day. Saying the same shit over and over in different ways."

He advocates for consistent content creation across multiple platforms, emphasizing its role in building trust and attracting potential customers without the heavy costs associated with traditional marketing channels.

5. The Evolution of SEO in the Age of AI

Gary discusses the impending transformation of SEO due to advancements in AI, predicting that traditional SEO practices will become obsolete as AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity take over.

Gary Vaynerchuk [21:37]: "SEO is paying tax. Like your toll booth in SEO. Google's taking your money for your own leads."

He advises businesses to focus on creating valuable content and building their brand rather than relying solely on SEO tactics that are soon to be overshadowed by AI technologies.

6. Balancing Work and Personal Life

Addressing a question from a young professional, Gary shares his perspective on balancing work and personal life, advocating for a holistic approach that allows for both professional success and personal fulfillment.

Gary Vaynerchuk [45:01]: "You can work and have fun. It all comes down to not beating yourself up."

He encourages young entrepreneurs to seize their youth by diligently working towards their goals while also ensuring they enjoy their personal lives, highlighting that maintaining this balance is crucial for long-term success and happiness.

7. Learning from Failures

Gary emphasizes the importance of embracing failures as learning opportunities rather than fearing them. He compares personal setbacks to common experiences like high school acne, illustrating that failures are part of the growth process.

Gary Vaynerchuk [50:35]: "The second you realize that your failures are yours, your battle scars, they're yours, you start liking them versus fearing them."

This mindset, according to Gary, is essential for becoming a dominant player in any industry, as it fosters resilience and continuous improvement.

Key Insights and Conclusions

Technological Adaptation is Crucial: Businesses must adopt AI and modern social media strategies to remain competitive. Resistance to technology can lead to loss of market share and business vulnerability.
Leadership and Accountability: Effective management involves holding oneself and the team accountable, making tough decisions to implement necessary technological changes, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation.
Branding Over Traditional Sales: Building a strong brand serves as a significant competitive advantage, allowing businesses to attract customers organically and exert greater pricing power.
Organic Social Media Strategies: Consistent and diverse content creation across multiple social media platforms is key to building trust, generating leads, and establishing a strong community presence without incurring high marketing costs.
The Future of SEO: With AI advancements, traditional SEO practices are becoming less effective. Businesses should focus on creating valuable, brand-centric content to stay relevant.
Work-Life Balance: Achieving a balance between professional ambitions and personal well-being is essential for sustainable success and happiness.
Embracing Failures: Viewing failures as learning opportunities rather than setbacks can significantly enhance business resilience and personal growth.

Notable Quotes

Gary Vaynerchuk [00:45]: "Technology is undefeated. You could cry about AI, or you can put in the work for 30 hours and read and learn and realize how you're going to weaponize it for you."
Gary Vaynerchuk [04:33]: "100% of everything that's not going well is 100% your fault."
Gary Vaynerchuk [19:56]: "Brand is the ultimate arbitrage."
Gary Vaynerchuk [26:08]: "Make as much content as you humanly can every day. Saying the same shit over and over in different ways."
Gary Vaynerchuk [21:37]: "SEO is paying tax. Like your toll booth in SEO. Google's taking your money for your own leads."
Gary Vaynerchuk [45:01]: "You can work and have fun. It all comes down to not beating yourself up."
Gary Vaynerchuk [50:35]: "The second you realize that your failures are yours, your battle scars, they're yours, you start liking them versus fearing them."

This episode serves as a compelling reminder for business owners to modernize their strategies by embracing technological advancements and innovative marketing techniques. Gary Vaynerchuk's insights provide actionable advice for building resilient, forward-thinking businesses poised for success in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

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Transcript

Gary Vaynerchuk (0:00)

This is the GaryVee audio experience.

Sebastian Jimenez (0:04)

If you're a business owner or work at a company that could benefit from AI, then this is the episode for you. Today, Gary is speaking at the Roofing Process Conference, the premier event for roofing professionals to learn, network and elevate their business. In this fireside chat, Gary is joined by CEO and founder of rilla, Sebastian Jimenez and serial entrepreneur Lance Bachman. You'll hear him break down the truth about why AI and social media marketing aren't optional anymore in 2025. He lays out exactly how to adapt. Get your team on board and shares the consequences of what not changing with the times are. What you're about to hear right now is what Gary's response would be to someone who just doesn't like technology and isn't interested in using it in their day to day work.

Gary Vaynerchuk (0:45)

I get you. I was the same way. I grew up a business kid. I liked selling lemonade and sports cards and then wanted to build a big business for my dad's liquor store. And when I was 18 and dreamed about doing that, I, I thought I was gonna Open up first 10 liquor stores in New Jersey and then 10 liquor stores in New York and then Florida. And then I was in a dorm room and I heard coo cooch and I saw this Internet thing. I'm like, fuck. Like I'm gonna have to learn this. Like, I got an F F in typing class in my sophomore year of high school. Cause I'm like, I'm never gonna type on a fucking computer. So what do I say? I say I understand you. But I hope that everybody in this room also understands that you chose to be in business. You didn't choose to be a teacher. You didn't choose to be in politics. You didn't choose to be in something else that doesn't have merit. You're in business. And business doesn't give a shit about your feelings or mine. And if you are thinking about bringing a sword to a gunfight, you are going to lose. And so I begrudgingly learned tech. It comes much more natural to me to do what I've done this week. I've actually not been talking a lot publicly this year because I'm busy. But this week, ironically, I've been on three stages in Dubai, Miami, and now here. And I love it. And it's easy. I rolled that. You saw the seconds before you took the stage. I'm working. And then they're like, gary V. I'm like, oh fuck, I gotta go on state, right? And Same thing in Dubai. I had 14,000 people in an arena and I had no idea what I was gonna talk about. But it comes so natural. And for a lot of you in this business, there are things that come incredibly natural. Maybe you grew up in the game and your hands are on hammer, right? You grew up in that way. For others like you, the marketing and the leadership came natural. The problem is your ability to get comfortable with the stuff that is uncomfortable, that is required for success is the indicator to where you're going to end up. And so what do I say? Tough shit. And like, but we could break it down. Tough shit means you could hire someone that's good at it, right? You've got to know it a little bit though. Cause you might hire someone and you're not sure if they're doing a good job with the CRM or the SEO or the social creative. But, like, you know, I get, you know, this is, you know, people love to talk in business. People love to talk about, like, capitalism and entrepreneurship and USA and all this stuff. And then they cry about merit. Like, technology's here and if you're gonna let other companies use it, you're gonna lose market share. And by the way, you're allowed to lose market share. You're allowed to have a business that's more vulnerable and softer and not in a position to sell. You're allowed. But to put your head in the sand in technology is always a bad move. Technology is undefeated. You could cry about AI, or you can put in the work for 30 hours and read and learn and realize how you're going to weaponize it for you. You could cry about social media, or you could take the 20 hours, put in the work, and learn how to use it. For you, tech is oxygen.

Gary Vaynerchuk (4:33)

I do it by having a lot of conversations. I normally start with the leadership team. And I've had a career where my businesses have started at one or two or three people and then have become thousands. And so without knowing how many employees you have, I've lived every version of it. And it's the same game whether you have six employees in that scenario. The way to get this across is really making sure your right hand or woman is on board with you. If there's a disconnect between you, the leader, and your number one on whatever the issue is. You're already vulnerable. So whether that's. You know, at this point, though, for example, at VaynerMedia, we're now 2500 people globally. And I just use a lot of zoom meetings with everybody, and it's great. Just, you know, for me, I get very excited, and I'm very passionate about the things I believe in. You know, I think a lot about, like, what. What can be valuable? Like, why am I here? And what. What's the one thing I can say? And I know it's. It'll be one thing for one person. It'll be another thing. We'll get three people. But I promise you, how many people here are owner operators? You're the owner. Raise your hands for the people that just raised your hands. 100% of everything that's not going well is 100% your fault. 100%. I know it hurts, but it's true. If Patty is fucking up, fire her. I love when people are like, oh, it's all fucked up. I'm like, cause you suck. Like, you are in control. Like, right. Like, you know, and I think. But what's interesting is, for me, and especially as you go to scale, there's like, 900 things that are fucked up right this minute. And I. That doesn't cripple me. It actually gets me excited because I feel like I can fix it. That's accountability. If I could leave with anything, if I could get everyone here into full accountability. How many people here are not the boss? Raise your hand. Not the boss. Not the. Not your company. Raise it. I have good news for you, too. If you're like, my boss blows, quit. Accountability is the gateway drug to happiness. And so how do you get people on board? You fucking first. Motivate them. First, you're empathetic. First, you're trying different maneuvers, and then there's a moment where you give them no choice. And I don't care if Don's been in the company for 17 years. If Don is the reason we're not implementing something that is imperative to make the business go forward, then Don is gonna have to have a very tough conversation from you that's like, hey, Don, this is it. If you keep fucking up what I'm trying to achieve by undermining it. Cause you're the OG in the building, you're gonna be out. I'm gonna help. Like. And by the way, if you're a nice person, like, I'm A nice guy in those scenarios, I'm like, don, I'll help you get another job. But we're not. This ship is not sinking because you don't like AI. I don't even understand how any human could think technology doesn't make. Like, I don't. I don't know what the fuck we're talking about up here. Is there anyone here that thinks, like, a pencil and paper are better than technology? Like, what the fuck is this argument? And by the way, by the way, like, implementing tech is hard. I mean, I had to fight my fucking dad for, like, three years to upgrade our register. I'm being dead serious. I'm like, dad, we need, like, this fucking register blows. Like, it's like the text from 1984. He's like, but I'm comfortable with it. Every time something new pops when TikTok, right? Because I know a lot of you saw me back then because I had a big enough audience and I was yelling about it in 17 and 18. And so a lot of people talk to me about it now because it's become so big. If you think I was pumped, I was sad. Every time there's a new technology, I'm like, fuck. Again, like, you know, like. Cause for me, it's like I'm winning at whatever is currently happening. I built on direct mail. People are like, gary Vee built his dad's business social media. I'm like, look at the timing. There was no social media. I built my dad's business on direct mail and print and then email and then Google AdWords. By the time the social media thing happened. Yes, I'm aware that that's when people discovered me. So that's the starting point. I've been doing all sorts of different shit that's OG for a decade. At that point, you know, I wish we were still in just direct mail. I had that shit fully figured out. I'm being serious. Like, I don't get pumped. I mean, there's a. At this point, I realize I'm good at it. So now I'd be lying to you if I didn't say, okay, well, this fits me so. And by the way, when you move first in your competitive set, you get most first move for advantage is real. But I'm sorry to interrupt, like, the concept of, like, sitting up here and doing this banter on, like, tech.

Gary Vaynerchuk (13:21)

That was pretty damn good, right? So that's the new social media game. The social media for the last 15 years. Some of you, I see a bunch of faces here, I've known for a long time that was email marketing. Get as many followers as possible, then a percentage of them would see it. That was hard. The new social media is there's people in this room who've never posted a thing for their company in their life and tomorrow open account post one video and it could work because now the content. As a matter of fact I said this the other day on my social or maybe I should say a little different with what I'm about to say. I'm actually arguing that social media isn't here anymore. We're now in interest media. A lot of you know this. If you consume social content comes to you now the algo the for you, right? That's the era we're in now. That's huge for all of us brother. It's fucking free. It's free. You can post for free. Yeah man, like you know, like why do you think I'm glad I told you my prior story, everything I'd prior done in marketing until 2007. Cost money. Direct mail, money. Billboards, money. Radio money. Local TV money, right? Hiring salespeople to knock on the door and make calls. Money. Social media, free. You post free distribution. Yeah, obviously there's some costs associated with time or whatever, but you know this. We don't even have to make big production people like flip the camera and just fucking talk. Y'all come and fix your fucking roof. You know what's funny about what I just said? I think a lot of you are smart enough to realize that that ad would work on a bunch of people. Certain people. Certain people will be like, I'll never do business with that cursing mouth guy. Other people like, yo, I fuck with that shit. Right? So, you know, I think that the social media part is I'm very passionate about because it's such underpriced behavior. Again, literally flipping your camera around, just saying, hey, I'm Jane. I've been in this business for 21 years. Locally. I know a lot of you know me because I'm going to post this in Facebook. And I know a lot of you know me. I know a lot of you don't. And if you need my H vac or roofing or plumbing or fucking anything, it's. It's. I don't understand how people are not betting the farm on this. Because for me, I know it's going to go away. I know that social as we have it today will not be forever. It's going to evolve. I'm actually very concerned that. Actually, I'm very excited, but concerned. I think the meta glasses thing is real. I do predict that in 10 years, we're pretty advanced in our glassware where the phone gets potentially not fully replaced. But I think a lot of you are going to be very surprised by how many of you might not have a phone on you in 10 years. The way we know the phone that the glasses, I would actually highly recommend for this holiday season. You buy a pair of the meta Ray Bans. Just so you feel it. It's like that couple hundred bucks is worth you learning. The thing that you'll learn, you got them later. When people see you stand up for a second so people see you, I want them come up to this young lady and ask her. The craziest part you probably agree with me. When you first used them was the audio, right? I was like, oh, fuck, I don't think I need EarPods anymore. It's crazy. I don't carry my phone. I just click on the side and answer. Hang up all, yeah, and if you're really, you know, it's really phenomenal where anyway, where I'm going with that, if I'm right and that takes over, you're all going to cry that you missed this era of free. Because Meta is going to be like, maybe they don't want it to be free because they're going to control it. Right. Apple's not in social. They control a different way and take a rake. So you have seven different platforms. If meta wins and this is the device, they have the optionality to not make a post. Be free. Yep. Shit's always moving. So anyway, please take advantage. Like, I. To think that you can't grow your business on social because you're in roofing is the dumbest fucking thing you could be possibly thinking. Like, you're selling to human beings. The fuck's the difference of somebody seeing a video about your business in their Instagram versus them picking up the phone when you're fucking or knocking on their fucking door? It's the same shit. Get out of your feelings. This is business.

Gary Vaynerchuk (26:08)

I actually only have one. One, two and three is organic social media. Literally. Literally make as much content as you humanly can every day. Saying the Same shit over and over in different ways. It is. You have to understand. I gave you the actual answer. I'm gonna break it down one more time. Cause it's that simple. Three years ago, social media changed. It used to be amass followers, then post, they would see it. Three years ago, TikTok changed the game. Now every platform works this way. Post and the content will find its audience. As a matter of fact, the AI is getting so strong, I believe I'll sit on a stage like this in three years. And now I said, oh, you don't care it goes to Afghanistan, you don't care if it goes to Ohio. And then I told you the real move. You're doing it to see if it's good content. And then if it is, then you do run ads in a 5 or 10 mile radius. That's how you convert. I believe the AI algorithms are going to get so good in the next three to five years that when you do post organically, it will. And you're in Denver, it will literally find people that are in market looking to change the roof in fucking Denver. This shit is real. Yeah. And so I think social, creative. Now I'm gonna break down why it's 1, 2 and 3. How do you do that? Right? Like the ideas are important, right? But notice I said a nuance. I hope people are listening. You can say the same thing every day. Literally, you could say the same thing every day. I'm Bob, I've been fixing roofs in this area for the last 20 years. Have a nice day. Post. And literally the next day, hey guys, I'm Bob. I've been doing this for 20 years. I want your roofing. Literally, you could literally see, because, you know, not everyone's seeing it. It's just how this shit works. But when you understand that organic social, for example, for the people that raise their hands, if you do organic social and you see what works, you'll start to learn, oh, if this video works, shouldn't I Change my Google AdWords to use the words I'm using in this video? And then your adwords start doing better. It's the starting point. It's the insights that come from it, the comments, how well it does. Why did this one do well? Right? And then you start to evolve. Now you're Bob in Denver and your video, you make a reference to what the Nuggets did last night. Like the fucking Nuggets lost to the Cavs. I'm pissed. You know? And all of a sudden a Nuggets fan's like, I like Bob. I'm a Nuggets fan too. I'm gonna use him instead of like the billboard. I start, like, you start to evolve, but it's kind of like working. Has anybody here. I'm one of those people. Has anybody here not worked out for a majority of their life and then in their 20s, 30s, or 40s, picked it up and it's become a part of their lives? Raise your hands. Just curious. So for the seven or eight, 10 people that have done it, what I'm saying now was similar to that which is the first day is gonna suck. Like right now, 10 or 12 of you, because that's. I've also learned only 10 or 12 of you are gonna do what I'm saying right now. 10 or 12 of you are pumped. You're like, yeah, fuck it. This is what I fucking needed. Garyvee did it. Yeah, I'm gonna do it. And then tomorrow comes and you're like, fuck. You know, like, you start to lose off the high of the moment, but if you stick with it, just like working out, you will be flabbergasted where you are in a year. And so it's posting, it's looking, but the very simple tactic. I ask you deeply to say this. Make the first video. I gave you one. Here's another video I would love for you to make. Hit record at your desk, maybe with your team, maybe by yourself. One minute about you and the business. That should be easy. I'm Paul. I'm Sarah. Been doing this. I inherited this from my dad. We've been here for 17 years. We're proud of it. We did the roof on fucking Main street for the, you know, the museum that they renovated, whatever the shit you've got to say, post that and that video. And again, I'm gonna say run ads on Facebook. I'm very hot on Facebook for this crew because Facebook skews 35, 45, 55, 65. You know people that actually own homes that need a fucking roof changed and run ads on Facebook on a 10 to 20, 30 mile radius of your shop. And again, if you're sitting here being like, well, how do I run ads? Good news, I'll give you a website, write it down to do it. It's G O o g L e dot com. What you do on there is you say, how do I run Facebook ads in a 30 mile radius of my store? Enter miraculously for free. It will show you a YouTube video or an article if you're good at reading, which I am not. You'll read the article. If you're good at audio and visual, you'll watch the video and then you will like watch it and open up your other laptop and you will run the ads. Not somebody else, not your 24 year old niece. Can you do this for me? No. You. So you understand it because what's going to happen is it's going to work. And when it starts working, you're going to start pouring more money into it over time because you like what's happening. And then eventually somebody's going to do it, not you. And I need you to know it just enough to know if they're doing a good job or not. The amount of money people in this room have lost by hiring someone else who's a kid to do the thing. But they didn't know how to judge if the kid was good at it. You need to know it just enough. Just like balancing your checkbook. Maybe you're not a CFO or an accountant, but if you have a business and you raise your hand and you own it, you know it enough to not go out of business. Same with this. That's how important. So that's 1, 2 and 3. My man.

Gary Vaynerchuk (32:30)

No, because I think regret is an interesting. I try to. First of all because you've been watching me. You know how much I talk about regret. So because I scared. I'm scared shitless of having regret. I think I live my life that way. So that's been helpful. I've had unlimited setbacks, professionally and personally. Challenges, tough moments. I'm also in a place where I have my life very simple. I'm busy and I'm chaotic and I'm high energy and I'm who I am. But I grew up similar to you in a Soviet kind of Eastern European Immigrant family where both my great grandmother and my grandma would never have one drink or a cup of tea, where they wouldn't say something to the tune that would translate to good health. Right. Like to me, my whole life was, it doesn't matter how much money you make, fame, this and that. Like every day, including this morning, I woke up, I looked at my phone. There was no 57 missed calls. Means nothing horrible happened overnight. And I'm just grateful to be able to play. I'm not. I'm very much detached from the GaryVee of it all, from the money of it all. I just want. I just want to do what I'm doing. There's plenty of, I would call them micro regrets. Right. But I did my best to spend, you know, I'm 15 and 12 year old. I spent as much time as I could, way more than my dad did. You always want more time with the people you love. Right? But I also have been the emotional and financial foundation for my entire family. And that comes. You can't do that if you're not putting in the time and the work. And so I don't know if, look, I anticipate to have regrets. I'm still a young man at 49. I've got another 50 years to live, so I'm sure it's going to be there. But as I sit here with you today, no. And that's because all the dumb shit we just talked about for 30 minutes, which I love, is dumb shit. What you need to focus on is like real love and health and just simple like basic shit. And when you live in that world, you've won me do. Yeah.

Gary Vaynerchuk (46:30)

You have 100 years to live more. You're going to be 100, bro. You know how pissed I am at you? You're in the generation that's going to live 100. You're going to be 121 years old when you die. Well, so good, bro. Like, I don't know, like fucking enjoy it and work. I don't know. It's so easy. I'll tell you what's happening and you'll appreciate it. We're now in the thinking generation. We're over answering, analyzing. If you didn't think about it, you would accomplish it easy. Work and have fun. Like, it all comes down to not beating yourself up. If you go hard for the next seven months because you're building your fucking future. I mean, 15 hours a day, no hanging out with friends, work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep. And then you wake up after seven months, you're like, fuck this bullshit and go to fucking Ibiza for two weeks and not work. It's all going to be fine. There is no fucking. Don't listen to anybody. Nobody's. There is no right way. And there's so much serendipity who you fall in love with, what happens, how the macro market micro, bro, you can't control this shit. All you can do is realize you have unlimited time. You could literally do everything wrong. You could literally fuck around for the next 10 years and do nothing financially smart or work, wake up, literally do nothing good except have fun for 10 straight years, wake up and be so young at 31 that you could then focus on having a good financial. And, and bro, I was the reverse. I gave up my entire twenties. I was obsessed to build a business for my parents. I don't know why. I really like, it's a little bit. I think I went too far. Like, but from 21 to 28, I worked a hundred hours a week. I went out zero days. I built something for my family. And then I Woke up at 28 and I was like, okay, wait a minute, maybe I should start thinking. And then at 34, I was like, had no money, but built a huge business for my dad. I was like, I'm 34. Maybe I should start worrying about myself. And had plenty of time to do what I'm doing. You have unlimited time. Gotcha.