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

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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Key Insights and Conclusions

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Work-Life Balance: Achieving a balance between professional ambitions and personal well-being is essential for sustainable success and happiness.

7. Embracing Failures: Viewing failures as learning opportunities rather than setbacks can significantly enhance business resilience and personal growth.

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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."

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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.

Transcript

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

This is the GaryVee audio experience.

[Sebastian Jimenez]

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]

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.

[Lance Bachman]

One of the things that you talk about a lot is people. 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. How do you do that? How do you get your people to embrace these new things that seem radical to most people?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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.

[Moderator]

No, listen, it's. And this is the thing about the roofing space. You know, these people are great people here. And I'm not a technology. I'm more of A technology guy than I'm a speaker. I told you, I'm back.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I don't like doing this.

[Moderator]

Right. I'm like, this isn't my thing. You love it, right? So this is not my thing. But I'm more in technology, right. I like the business and technology side and I think you said.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

But I, But I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think we're over coddling. I'd rather them just go out of business. I'm being serious. Like in a world of like wanting to help someone, it's like parenting, right? Parenting got fucked up. We're over coddling these little fuckers. Now, now, now, pay attention to the h. The clapping that just happened when we were making fun of our kids. Hi. But us sitting up here making fun of you for not doing tech, you're quiet as fuck.

[Moderator]

You're all fired.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That, like, again, I don't think this is. I don't know. We're gonna motivate if, for example. Cause I don't have the full context. Anyone here who's way behind on whether it's marketing, on social and things of that nature, or tech by bringing in SaaS or CRM. I don't think at this point the three of us in the next 42 minutes and 24 seconds are going to motivate them to jump. I think we have to tell them the truth, which is you're vulnerable and you don't think so because you've been big in the area for the last 15 years. People say that shit all the time in every sector. And then something happens and that something is always tech enabled. Competitors or companies come and take your shit. And so like, what are we doing here? Like, please do not be like, do not make ideological choices when it comes to business. Do not make selfish choices of what you like or don't like. Focus on the business, the consumer. Like that.

[Moderator]

Gary, let me ask you this question. She just said it. You wrote a great book, bestseller about social media, right? And I believe in social media. We talked about it heavily. Can you just. If you were starting a roofing business today, right? I'm going to put it in that context. I'm not going to ask you to sell them on why they should do social media because you're telling them to fire. But if you were starting a roofing company today, or H vac, electrical, whatever it may be, how would you. And what social media platforms would you focus on to get your message out?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The reason I would successfully come into any person's market here and Be a problem not saying put you out of business or even be better than you but be a problem is that even if I didn't understand the business as well as you did because you grew up in the game a I'm smart enough to realize that and I would hire people that I'd come and take your number three from you or your number two. Now I've taken a lot of information quickly and then what I would do next is your problem. I so would know how to get customers better than you by doing organic social at scale anything that over indexed with views because the algorithm now tells you if creative is good. I would then take that ad even though it might hit I might be doing business in Iowa when I put out organic social. I might be hitting somebody in Buffalo, I might be hitting someone in Cincinnati. I know a lot of you have thought about that which is like well how's this valuable? I post it but I'm in fucking Denver. I don't give a shit if someone sees this in Afghanistan, right? The problem is what I'm looking for is to see if it resonates with people. Then I take that ad, I tweak it a little bit, I change the copy and then I run that same video in a five mile radius of my office.

[Moderator]

If you didn't write that down or report that, I don't tell you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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.

[Moderator]

Get out of here.

[Lance Bachman]

Get out of your feelings.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Gary. So you know why I said that? Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people don't do social on some dumb ideology.

[Lance Bachman]

Oh, it's an afterthought.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's bad for the kids. I don't like it. That's my favorite. Gary, I'm not gonna do. I don't like it. I'm like, okay, John, but like, what does that even mean? You don't like using Instagram, so you don't want to use it to build your business. Like, you, like, search. Like, I don't get it, you know? And then people go even more, gary, I'm not gonna do TikTok. It's, you know, China. I'm like, okay, it's all excuses. The point I'm trying to make to all of you, everything you're gonna say to me about all this stuff, it's just excuses because you're complacent or maybe even scarier, checked out and a little lazy. Like, that's real talk. Like, how are you not putting in effort on this? And that's. Listen, it's okay to be the old lion, by the way. I've worked every day since I was 14. I get the concept of fuck, man. Cool, Gary. This is all inspiring, but I'm fucking tired. I've been at this for a long time. I don't want to. I'm like, that's fine. But there's a reason that the young lion eventually comes around and kills the old lion and becomes the new king of the jungle. And that's what we're all in. And you just gotta understand that that's a good reason to sell. A good reason to sell is if you've been listening for the last 20 minutes and you're like, fuck you, Gary, I'm not doing this shit. If you're sitting here like, fuck you, Gary, I'm not doing this shit. You should sell tomorrow.

[Moderator]

Built this up.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So.

[Lance Bachman]

So, Gary, one of the things that you've been really great at and you talk about it right now, is finding arbitrage. Like, what's the new channel? What's the new technology that's going to find the arbitrage so that I can actually get the next wave of growth and everybody else is going to stay behind. And one of the biggest arbitrage that I've seen in business is brand. The power of brand.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's the biggest nothing. Yeah. So. And. And the biggest brand, because brand, I'm sorry, Brand means customers are going to come to you. You know, like, I love sales. I'm a salesman. But sales is what you do when you're not good at brand. We don't even answer RFPs anymore at Vayner, which is like the only way you can get business in agency land. We just don't do it. We're like, we built brand. You want to work with me and us, then give us your business. I'm not making a deck. So brand is the ultimate arbitrage. What do you think religion is? What do you think Nike is? What do you think Nike's knocking on your door and be like, hey, man, you want some sneakers? Brand is. There is nothing else. There's nothing else.

[Lance Bachman]

And. And I want to. I want to focus in on one thing that, that happens with brand, which is it allows you to have pricing power.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Lance Bachman]

You talk about Nike. You know, it's a Steve Jobs video where he talks about Nike's a commodity product. But, you know, Nike prices out everybody else. Apple with the iPhone, they get 80% of the profits in smartphones.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's why I want everybody here to build personal brand. Because when they call you and they want to work with you and roofing, because they've seen you in the video and they're like, but, you know, but, but. And you give them the price and they're like, but the other guy down the street's a little less. You're like, cool, work with the other guy. But they don't want to. They called you when they call you, you have pricing power. When you ask them, you don't. It's real. It's real.

[Moderator]

I never question.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Can I say one other thing? Because I'll forget it. And this is just how my brain works. The number one video everybody here can make is called, titled how to not hire us to fix your roof. I want everybody to write this down. If you're trying to. Like, I know that some people, I know a handful of people here are going to be actually motivated to like, attack social a little bit. But then the next problem happens, which is like, what the fuck do I say? Like, what is the right that shit. Let me give you the first ad you should all make in your local area. The title of the video should be how to not hire us to fix your roof. And the video is a video you make that tells people common things that people make mistakes on. To not fix a little thing that can become a big thing. You are now building trust and reputation. Right? Like, think about how that works. Like, if you're out here making a video for your local area of like, hey, I don't want to come and charge you a big nut to replace your whole roof. Let me tell you a couple of things you could be doing to maintenance your roof better. So you can call me four years down the line, not four months from now. Now you're starting to build community. Now you're starting to build trust. Now you're starting to. It's not just transactional. It's a very big deal.

[Lance Bachman]

Literally what you just said right quick. One of our customers, he sells Windows in Texas. If you guys Google his YouTube channel, window experts in Houston. Houston Window Experts. He literally did that. He literally did a video just like that. Be like, hey, common mistakes of buying Windows. And he built a brand online, a YouTube channel. His salespeople each, on average, on average, he has a team of like five salespeople. They each on average make like $4 million a year in annual revenue for the business. And. And all of it inbound. He's not struggling with leads going down. He's not struggling with, like, you know, SEO. It's like he literally. You go to his YouTube.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

SEO is paying tax.

[Lance Bachman]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Like your toll booth in SEO. Google's taking your money for your own leads. Sometimes SEO is transactional. It's not marketing. It's sales. No shit. It works. Somebody typed in how to fucking fix my roof. Enter. Yes, that's sales. Like, you don't want to be in that game because SEO is about to change over the next 10 years. SEO's in. How many people here? This is actually. I'm glad we got to this. How many people here? I'm one of them. So I'm going to raise my. How many people here do well with SEO? It's a part of their mix. It's something they. Raise your hands. Hi, I want to see it. Hi. Please everybody, including me who just raised your hands. We need to understand that AI is about to eat the shit out of SEO. ChatGPT. Perplexity. And then like Alexa at home. And the problem is SEO was good for us. Need to fix my roof. Enter lots of results. Hey, ChatGPT. I need to fix my roof. They're going to tell you who to use. There's no 50 results. There's no right side of the rail. They're going to tell you who to use and they're going to take a percentage of that. My friends, things are moving. How many people here are retiring in the next five years? And I don't mean you're going to crush it for the next couple of years and sell the company and buy a boat. I mean, you're old and you're finished. Raise your hands. One. Two. Two. Right? So those two gentlemen that I just saw, you can think some of this with some percentage of a grain of salt, right? You're like, you're holding on to like you're playing pre bent defense, right? Like holding on to just not lose you like that Football reference. For the rest of you, please pay attention. If you plan on being business in six years from today, there's a lot of we need to like look at.

[Moderator]

G. I want everyone in the crowd. Last question from us now. I want to turn over to everyone here.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay?

[Moderator]

Is that cool?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Please.

[Moderator]

Everyone here is roofing contractors, about 90% of them there, another 10% home services. If you were starting a business today, average company here is probably somewhere between 2 and 8 million dollars. Somewhere between the revenue just.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I want to give you context so.

[Moderator]

You understand the question fully. What are the top three things we say to them to increase their leads? Because who here does one? More leads. Please stand up. Suddenly wants more leads here.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Of course.

[Moderator]

What would you do to get leads and build your brand and trust in your community as fast as possible? What's the top three things? I know there's a ton of things you talk about. I'm just curious to.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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.

[Moderator]

I appreciate that. We're gonna open it up. There's a microphone right there and right there. I'm gonna ask Matt Friedman to where you at, buddy? In case wants to. I'm going to ask everybody ask one question.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yo, what the is going on on this side? There's like tons of people lining up here. There's nobody who's lined up here.

[Moderator]

I'm going to ask one question just so there's a lot of people there. About 21 minutes, 22 minutes. I don't want to hold Gary up the Sebastian up. So by the way, Demetri, your first. No surprise. So G, you are very busy man.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Moderator]

Been working for 10 years. Do you have any regrets? Personal or business? Maybe working too much, maybe like any regrets?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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.

[Moderator]

What should we be doing right now to help feed the AIs, to help build trust so that we rank in the future?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, it's funny you say that. My brother called me yesterday to set up a meeting for me with a company next week that is doing early AI SEO. So the answer is, I don't know, brother. But it's. But I've been looking for it and I'm actually ironically on the pre dawn of starting my process of probably knowing. But what I will say is I have so many friends screenshoting me like different AI queries like who are the best entrepreneurs in the world? And. And my name is showing up and I laugh because I really don't think I am actually one of the best entrepreneurs in the world. But I know that I've produced a lot more content than every other entrepreneur and that's why the AI is picking that up. And then it becomes brand. And then, wait a minute, does that actually put me in a position? And so I would say that tactically, the SEO of AI hasn't been cracked yet, which is why I'm trying to figure it out. But macro, if, you know, if everything stays in your head. A young woman, I don't know if she's here, she said she wanted to start something. There you are. You knew where I was about to go. I'm impressed. She said, hey, I'm really passionate about this bucket list thing that I want to do. And I was like, then you have to do. I said, it can't be in your head action. And so I promise you, pondering and sitting on the sidelines on technologies ain't gonna do it. I think one of the best things that can do to help you show up in the AI is is starting to make content and starting to put you and your brand out there. Morning, brother.

[Moderator]

I'm the director of marketing technology for our company. I onboarded about a month ago. I noticed a workflow issue within our organization. We're currently. When a homeowner calls into our local company, you take all their information, pass that information along to the salesperson. My question for you is, do we a. Do we do a live transfer or do.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Look, I think live transfers are epic because you're still on the hook. It's emotionally better. Like, you have a better chance of closing if you're still in that motion in that moment. So I'm a big believer that live transfer is a better arbitrage and has historically shown much better results. And now it becomes a journey. If you don't have that infrastructure, you start investing it, you know, step by step. But for me, like, if you can close when they're fucking ready to close.

[Moderator]

Hey, Gary, so you were a on stage earlier, we were talking about how you learn how to do direct mail, then you learn Gmail, and then you learn content creation, social media. You're someone that has been able to adapt to the changes in technology. I'm someone that I grew up in this industry as a laborer. I just know you can make a quite fun of money. I was really awakened by like, going to work in business is completely different from going to action.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Very how to do is.

[Moderator]

How do you learn and adapt so quickly to learn new things? What are some practical ways you can learn things fast?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Man, this is such a powerful question, brother. First of all, you just asked the question of why my content evolved from 2006 through to 20 to 2020. 4. I used to tell all of you what to do, and then nobody was doing it. And I was like, fuck, man, I'm telling. Like. Like, do Google AdWords, here's Facebook. Like. And I was like, why? And then I started reading the comments. I was like, fuck. People are insecure. You know, the first way to be adaptable is to not be scared to fail. The way to not be scared to fail is to not value other people's opinions, Right? So, you know, I think this fear of failing is stopping people from adaptability, because for some reason, players, which you all are on the field, have decided to value the crowd's boos and cheers. So I think the number one unlock to adaptability is the ability to not give a shit about what people think about you. That's one. Once you get over that hurdle, which is. I say that some people never get over that hurdle, unfortunately. Just not knowing everybody here. But I just know how it works. 90% of people here are still mentally stuck in high school. They literally do care what people think. Once you get over that hurdle, it becomes practice. How the fuck did you get good as a laborer? You weren't. You were better the thousandth time you did a fucking shingle than the first practice. But again, if you're not scared, like the failure thing. Everyone up. The ego thing. I'm good at email. I spent seven years doing email. Oh, this new thing. Fuck that. I wasted my time on email. No, you didn't. You dominated email when it mattered and unfortunately it's now shifted. So it's all perspective and mentality and then practice. You're welcome. We heard so many, so much of.

[Moderator]

This yesterday from the presenters. Raise your hand if you've never failed at anything before. You all know how failure feels.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Like you're here because you want to.

[Moderator]

Get better and learn from the failure.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And apply it to better yourself.

[Moderator]

Right, brother?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Can I build? Can I build on that?

[Moderator]

Yes, sir.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'll take it even a step further. I prefer failing. Let me say this nice and slow. I get. Why do you think I'm still a fucking jets fan? I'm being serious. I grew up a huge Yankees fan. Huge. But then they won in 96 and it stopped being interesting. This is why I'm so into the Jets. I fucking. You guys are like, oh, sorry, Gary. You guys suck. Aaron Rodgers. I'm like, fuck you. I love it. Do you know how bad I feel for 35 and under Boston sports fans? They've won everything already. It's over. It's boring. The Red Sox were super fucking epic. Now they're just whatever. Like, losing's the fucking game. Micro losing, right? Going completely out of business is bad, but I promise you, you can't really see it because of the way I communicate. But if you ask me if we chill, if we hang out in heaven in 300 years, be like, yo, I saw you in fucking Marco Island. And I was like, yeah, I'm cool. What's up? And we're chilling in heaven, and you're like, yo. But really, why did that work for you? Like, why did you have a good life and why were you successful? Humility. Again, not obvious. You don't know me like that, but my inner circle knows it's not the bravado you see here, it's the humility. I like the losing. I don't think I'm special. I just think I'm going to persevere. Yeah.

[Moderator]

Let's hit another question. Best name in the conference, Mr. Joe Roose. What's up, Ar?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Good to see you, brother.

[Moderator]

Hey. We build Solar Con off organic social media only.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I know. I know a lot of what I learned from you. I saw it, bro. And by the way, that's why I do it. I saw it. I know. Like, there's no greater gift. It's funny, because this just happened. This is where I'm going. What are we In December, three months ago, we landed a humongous $25 million fee, like, deal, like, we got it. Yeah, Gary wanted. We got it. Three hours later, I was flying and reading email. I got, like, four emails in a row like yours, brother. Hey, Gary. I own a flower shop. I read day trading. Attention. Like, we were in deep. We were gonna get evicted. Like, done one fucking TikTok, tripled our business. Next one. Hey, man. Built like, the next one. Hey, I'm an accountant. I heard you on LinkedIn. I've been pounding it. My business is double. And I just. It was so insane to me how those four random emails felt 7 trillion times more interesting to me than the big deal we made. I promise you, some of you are empaths. Some of you are built this way. You get a high from, like, feeling good, like, when you're like that right there. Like, I know that at least one person was sitting here. Today is going to do something different because of this talk. I know at least one. I wasn't joking earlier. It's probably only going to be 10, but it's the fucking best. I'm proud of you, bro. It's because it's Fucking free.

[Moderator]

So my question, based on social media content, the issue I'm having is I'm.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

In solar and a lot of us.

[Moderator]

In the roofing, you get to a plateau where the audience is not interested.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

In roofing or solar.

[Moderator]

How do you build your audience to stay still, have that riches in the niches?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You're not even close to penetrating it that you might not be mixing up your content enough, you might not be using enough platforms, you might not be posting enough on each platform until you're posting on all seven. YouTube shorts, Snapchat, Spotlight, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. Until you're posting on all seven and you're posting three original pieces of content a day on all seven. And you do that for 15 years like I have, and you still don't have 50% of the market knowing who the fuck you are. You can't say what you just said. Got me? Got it. That you haven't even started penetrating. Once you understand that, you're off to the races.

[Moderator]

Let's go to Ian. We've got. All right, so I'm 21 years old, freshman in the industry, work for a solar maintenance company called detached solar B2B sales. My question is I want to set myself up for success, for the future, build financial stability, but at the same time enjoy my youth. Now, how do I balance the work.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Hard and enjoy it at the same time? Where's the balance going by realizing you're 21, bro. First of all, I already know you're even. The way you're asking the question and the way I feel, you're gonna be fine. I'm not even bullshitting you, you're gonna be fine. The fact that you're even thinking about it and the way you articulated it, you're gonna be fine. You want a really good piece of advice? You're fucking 21. You can do both. You can work 12 hours a day. There's 53 year olds sitting here, they're like, man, this motherfucker. You could work. I'll tell you why. That's how I see them and I'm gonna tell you why. They grew up in the generation where they literally worked from fucking 7am to 8pm, went home, took a shit in the shower, went out, drank for four fucking hours and had fun. Came home, woke up and did it again for seven straight fucking years, you know? Yeah. By the way, to your point, I'm not saying I'm promoting it. The answer to your question was the way I answered it, by you realizing you're 21. When I tell you, and I'm not bullshitting you, you may think I'm doing this for hyperbole. I'm telling you the truth, what I'm about to say. Besides the family dynamics, the kids and all that, professionally, I would give up absolutely everything I have right now to trade with you.

[Moderator]

And that's why. That's why the question comes up is, I know time is the most expensive commodity.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And so it's.

[Moderator]

How do I.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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.

[Moderator]

But Gary, thanks for your time. It's been all right. Hooks and no jabs. So I love it. You kind of answered my question before, but I stopped using Google search.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm just on perplexity now.

[Moderator]

It's amazing.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yep.

[Moderator]

And I'm raking on there, thankfully. I love it. Just one. If you can touch on that a little bit more about ranking on there, like, I know you don't have any information on it or do you see any predictions in that space?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's gonna.

[Moderator]

It's gonna.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's gonna eat up everything. It's better. How many people here use Chat Chat. GBT per flex. They use it. Raise your hand. Raise it high. Actually stand up. This is important. This is an important moment. Stand up if you use it. Yeah. Stand up if you use it. I. I just want everybody to look around. This crew is not like Silicon Valley elite. You see where I'm going, right? This crew is og. That's all we've been talking about. I need everybody who's not standing to look around. I want you to look around. 70% of this room is now begun the process of shifting away from going to Google to using AI chat bots. This shit's over. It's not fully over, but this is only going in one direction. And if you are overly reliant on Google for your business, you better wake up. Cool.

[Moderator]

So my name is David. I am with DCAD Recess Solar as well.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

My.

[Moderator]

Kind of like yours. I had to write down my question or I wouldn't forgot. So it's, what are your most important lessons you've learned from your failures and how can I apply those lessons to implement into my journey and my journey.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

With entrepreneurship that nobody gives a fuck about your failures? You want me to break that down for you? What I've learned about my failures is do you remember like having a zit in high school? And remember like in the morning you're like, like all bent out of shape and you think like, fuck. And like, you just like. It's just like you're fucked up. And then you go to high school and what you didn't realize is everybody else has fucking zits too, and they're worried about their zits, not yours. And if they're really insecure, they'll make fun of your zit because deep Down. They're really fucked up about their zit. So what do I think, brother? The second you realize that your failures are yours, your battle scars, they're yours, you start liking them versus fearing them. But 99% of this room is still fearing them. Which is why I pound the fuck out of the content that I pound. So what have I learned? That that doesn't mean anything except to yourself. And if you learn to like them versus fear them, of how that makes you look in front of others, you will be a fucking dominant player.

[Moderator]

Yeah, that is the last one. Can everyone else sit down that line for me, please, though? Because we gotta get camera.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm sorry. Please.

[Moderator]

I'm sorry.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's by the way, by the way. It was all their fault. The mics were there the whole time. You could have gotten up early. I love that they fucking didn't get their question asked. It's merit. I'm serious. I love merit. My man.

[Moderator]

I don't know how many. We're not gonna be able to ask.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You these questions right now, so.

[Lance Bachman]

Yeah, right now you got 45 seconds.

[Moderator]

From 20 years old, from fresh, right into the company. Like, I'm at a really big falsehood right now. My whole life I've had this idea. My parents instill this to me, my teachers, that if I don't go to college, I'm not going to be successful.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

They're stupid.

[Moderator]

My parents don't even know, like, that I'm here right now.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's so good, bro. You're going to win. And then you're going to look at them and tell them that you told them so. And if not, and you suck in life, then they'll make fun of you and say, if you would have went to college, you wouldn't have sucked. I apologize. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good, bro. I'm going to say something that's going to help a lot of people here. There's a. Do you love your parents?

[Moderator]

Yes, I do.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Like, a lot. Like, you're in a good place with them?

[Moderator]

Of course.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, not everybody is. Some of us aren't. Like, I got lucky. It sounds like you got lucky. Some of us, our parents were in a bad place and they couldn't deliver for us in the right way. But what a lot of kids in your spot do is what your dilemma is right now. And this is why I said, give me a minute. I'm okay. I'll run to the airport and make sure I make it. A lot of kids end up doing what their parents want them to do because they love them. They were like, they put a roof under my, like, took care of me. They bought me all the shit I wanted. And so you're doing it for them. What they don't realize is when you live your life for your parents, you start to build resentment towards your parents. And so what they choose is instead of right now in the short term, your parents being disappointed and it being like a little bit of a thing. There's a lot of people later in their life that have no relationship with their parents because they blame their parents for everything that happened in their life. Cause they followed their. I mean there's people that marry people based on their parents definitely go to college. And so why I'm taking a moment is it might hurt a little right now and they may be disappointed. But I promise you, you're actually putting yourself in a position to have a better relationship with your parents, not the other way around. And that's what well intended kids don't see at this age make sense.

[Moderator]

It.