Social Media is Dead:Why You Need to Start Creating for Interest Media in 2026

Summary

Podcast Summary: The GaryVee Audio Experience
Episode: Social Media is Dead: Why You Need to Start Creating for Interest Media in 2026
Release Date: February 12, 2026
Host: Gary Vaynerchuk
Guest Moderator: Sean

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Episode Overview

In this engaging and motivational episode, Gary Vaynerchuk shares his perspective on the state of digital marketing in 2026, arguing that "social media is dead" and the new era is "interest media." Speaking to an audience of entrepreneurs and life insurance agents, Gary offers practical advice on building a brand, the real drivers behind success, responsible content creation, and the importance of self-awareness, patience, and conviction. The episode is rich with anecdotes, memorable quotes, and actionable insights, all delivered in Gary's signature direct and passionate style.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Death of Social Media and Rise of Interest Media

• Gary explains the transformation in digital platforms:
  • Social media as we knew it (follower-based content distribution) is over.
  • Today, algorithms prioritize content based on user interests and behaviors, not on who you follow.
  • "The creative itself, the video and the picture itself, is the merit of distribution, not how many followers you have. That is profound." (Gary, 05:39)
• Opportunity for all:
  • The playing field is now level; a new creator’s content can outperform that of influencers, regardless of following size.
  • “If you start tomorrow, your third post with nine followers... can get more views than my post in three days... That’s a level of merit and opportunity that is insane.” (Gary, 03:50)
• Emerging platforms:
  • Gary highlights Substack as a currently undervalued, high-attention platform moving into newsletters, video, and podcasting.
    • Recommendation: “Every one of you need to write down Substack.” (Gary, 06:35)

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2. Content Strategy: Bring Value, Not Just Sales Pitches

• Shift from convincing to bringing value:
  • “The greatest way to sell is to bring actual value. Convincing is a bad sales energy. Conviction is a tremendous sales energy.” (Gary, 19:38)
• Educational content over direct pitching:
  • Instead of pushing products, educate audiences on financial literacy or smart saving habits, paving the way for later sales.
  • "If I have to sell life insurance, I’m selling it a year before I’m talking to them by putting out content every day about stop buying Starbucks for $5 a cup and put that $5 in your saving account and make some fucking Folgers at your house." (Gary, 20:18)
• Set up sales with jabs (value), not just right hooks (pitches):
  • “Very hard to knock someone out if you throw right hooks every time, you’ve got to set them up with a jab.” (Gary, 20:13)

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3. Patience, Discipline, and Internal Motivation

• Patience as a competitive advantage:
  • “Patience is easy for me because I don’t give a fuck about other people’s opinions about me.” (Gary, 10:33)
  • Lack of patience is often rooted in a desire to impress others with material things.
  • “You want to make as much money as possible to buy dumb shit to impress people you don’t even like.” (Gary, 10:46)
• Accountability and self-awareness:
  • Gary urges radical ownership:
    • “Everything in your life right now... that’s a problem is 100% your fault.” (Gary, 21:03)
  • Don't waste energy complaining or blaming others; use that time for action and improvement.
  • “Every minute you spend on complaining or dwelling or blaming is a minute you’re not spending on all.” (Gary, 21:45)

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4. Overcoming Fear and Doubt in Content Creation

• The paralysis of caring about others’ judgment:
  • Many people don't post because they're afraid of criticism or don't believe in their product.
  • “If they're posting because they're scared about other people shitting on them, they need to ask the next question. Are you insecure? Or maybe you don't believe in the format and that's okay too.” (Gary, 26:47)
• Be all in or not at all:
  • “What you can’t do is be half pregnant and a lot of motherfuckers I’m looking at right now are half fucking pregnant.” (Gary, 27:34)
  • Commitment is required for breakthrough success.

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5. Building a Real Business: Reinvest and Avoid Flashy Traps

• Reinvest in the business, not yourself:
  • “The single biggest reason that I built real companies in my life is because I don’t start businesses to take money out of it, to buy things for me. I start businesses to take the money that the business makes, to put it back in the business to make it bigger.” (Gary, 30:15)
• Don’t confuse entrepreneurial ventures with a job; invest profits into growth, not lifestyle.
• Gary's personal example:
  • He worked for his family business at average pay, reinvested everything, and only started his own company at 34, building from scratch.

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6. The Power of Self-Awareness and Uncompromised Values

• Be true to yourself:
  • “I think compromising what’s in your soul is a death sentence. To have the mental talent to get to the self-awareness... to the level of humility...” (Gary, 38:30)
  • Gary’s lack of compromise on kindness, authenticity, and morals is central to his philosophy and success.
• Compassion and empathy:
  • Judgment of others is rampant but counterproductive.
  • Approach others with empathy, assuming their behavior comes from pain or hardship, not malice.

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7. Sales Motivation: Love, Hope, and Optimism Beat Fear and Hate

• Don’t sell based on fear:
  • “Fear and hate are really good at winning the first three and a half quarters of a football game. But love and hope and optimism wins the game in the end.” (Gary, 41:23)
• Focus on the real value and peace of mind insurance brings, not scare tactics.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Opportunity in New Era:

  • "The creative itself, the video and the picture itself, is the merit of distribution, not how many followers you have. That is profound." (Gary, 05:39)

• On Making Content:

  • "Even the best people at social just want to do one or two platforms. Most of you don't want to do another platform because you don't have the humility to start at zero again." (Gary, 04:59)

• On Self-Worth and Patience:

  • "My mother's an angel. I'm built on her shoulders. I'm a nice person. I get no validation from how much money I have or followers I have or the claps you gave me." (Gary, 13:16)

• On Taking Ownership:

  • "Everything in your life right now that's a problem is 100% your fault. This is incredibly important..." (Gary, 21:03)

• On Reinvesting:

  • "The single biggest reason that I built real companies is because I don't start businesses to take money out of it, to buy things for me." (Gary, 30:15)

• On Compounding Success Authentically:

  • "I think compromising what’s in your soul is a death sentence." (Gary, 38:30)

• On Kindness & Legacy:

  • "I will not compromise on kindness at any turn. I will only speak my fucking truth. I will only sell something I believe in. Period. End of story." (Gary, 15:24)

• On Sales Motivation:

  • "Fear and hate are really good at winning the first three and a half quarters...But love and hope and optimism wins the game in the end." (Gary, 41:23)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:00: Gary on value-driven sales and avoiding convincing.
• 01:33: Social media's shift to interest media; algorithm change explained.
• 03:50: Instant, merit-based opportunity for all creators.
• 05:39: Followers matter less; creative quality is currency.
• 06:35: Substack as the next major platform.
• 10:33: Patience is rooted in not caring about others’ opinions.
• 13:16: Kindness, self-worth, and the impact of Gary’s upbringing.
• 19:38: Conviction in sales and providing value, not convincing.
• 20:13: Sell through education and longer-term content strategy.
• 21:03: Radical accountability and taking ownership.
• 26:47: Addressing fear in posting and content creation.
• 27:34: Fully commit or don’t bother – “half pregnant” analogy.
• 30:15: Reinvest in business; avoid lifestyle creep.
• 38:30: Self-awareness, uncompromised morality, and humility.
• 41:23: The ultimate sales edge: optimism and service over fear.

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Final Takeaways

• Interest media means the door is wide open for creators, regardless of follower count or starting point.
• Focus on producing value-adding, educational content that serves the audience’s real needs.
• Play the long game: reinvest in your business, commit fully, and don’t chase superficial validation.
• Operate from a place of genuine care, optimism, and self-awareness—this drives long-term results and personal fulfillment.
• Be unflinchingly true to your values and bring your whole, authentic self—success follows.

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Enduring Advice:
“Don’t compromise your soul. That’s a death sentence.” (Gary, 42:01)

Transcript

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The greatest way to sell is to bring actual value. Convincing is a bad sales energy. Conviction is a tremendous sales energy. The content you should be putting out on social is maybe educating people how to be more financially literate so they could afford the life insurance versus talking about the life insurance. This is the GaryVee Audio Experience.

[Sean]

First of all, thank you for being here, man.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's a pleasure.

[Sean]

It's our pleasure. I want to, I want to get right into it. We got, we got a room full of people that are trying to build their brand. They're all different levels. Somebody started. Yes, I might have met it for 12 years and you know, I was messing around with social media a couple years ago and somebody was like, who do you see the most on social media? I was questions and I said, gary Ve and he said, how did that happen? And I went, I don't know, I'm not Gary B. And you've seen my social media so ain't working. So I don't know. Marketing genius is an understatement in my opinion, from watching from a distance. Can you start by just they're building their brand. Most of them are trying to recruit agents. They got leads, they're buying leads. They have prospects to sell life insurance too. But 95% of people in this room are trying to build a business recruiting people they do or don't know. 99% of that is through social media. Can you talk to us about any basing foundation issue, looking to start with or anything that we need to know now?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, I have some really good news. You know, social media, when I got involved back in 2005, 6, 7 came very natural to me because I had built my dad's liquor store on email marketing. And email marketing was get as many people on the email as possible, put out good information, a good wine deal, a good price, good information. And a percentage of them would convert social made sense to me, get followers, put out good information and that will build a real brand. And then if I wanted to sell wine or books or collectibles or hats, that would work out as a business. I have really good news for all of you. I have. And thank you for the kind words. And I think a lot of you know this, some may not, but I've done a damn good job for 20 years doing the game. And literally four years ago, all the advantages I had on every one of you went away and that's good for you. And it fucking sucked a little bit for me, but it didn't scare me because the game of Marketing is the game of marketing. We talked sports in the back. Business has always been like sports to me. Like, there's no crying in baseball. Like, things change. We've watched the greatest athletes of all time look a shadow of themselves because, you know, Mother Time is undefeated, as they say. And so this is really important because it's gonna make a lot of you feel very encouraged. I'm happy because seven, eight years ago, I would come and if I did this talk, I would have to talk to you about the thing that I know most people are not good at, that I'm very good at, which is patience. I would have sat here six years ago and told all of you that you need to make an enormous amount of good content for the next two or three years, seven days a week, every day. And you'll get to some nice baseline, and then you'll start to cook. We no longer live in social media, friends. Social media died four or five years ago. Now nobody has coined a new term. I'm trying to say what I call it. It's called interest media. All of you know this. How many people here have been on social media? One of them Facebook, Twitter, one of them for over eight years. Raise your hands. Should be an enormous amount of the crowd, right? You know what I'm talking about. Happened 10 years ago. Eight years ago, you would see content from the people you followed. Now you're seeing content based on what recently you're kind of paying attention to whether it's bullshit politics, whether it's sports, whether it's. Whether it's bikini clad girls or dudes with abs cooking baseball. We are now in interest media. Why is this super intoxicating for everyone in this room? It's because so many of you have actually been horrible, underperforming, not diligent, not disciplined, not gangster, about the single most important platform of attention in the world called social media. And now that's irrelevant to because you've actually not lost time, not lost advantages, not been outflanked, because literally, if you start tomorrow, your third post with nine followers on TikTok or 48 followers on Instagram, can get more views than my post in three days. That's a level of merit and opportunity that is insane. And it should have every single person here running the fuck out of this conference room right now. Cause you know what I'm about to say for the next 45 minutes anyway, and go and post some shit. I hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. It'll make my mom super happy. Did everybody really understand what I just said? It really is like, I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's insane that that happened. Like, again, back to me being like, I'm not pissed because I love the game, but damn, I was so right for so long and put in all that work and literally we're on even playing field. The creative now, the creative itself, the video and the picture itself is the merit of distribution, not how many followers you have. That is profound. What I know is I'm still gonna outflank all of you tomorrow because I'm committed to posting on all eight platforms. I've got millions on LinkedIn all the way to Snapchat with TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and YouTube shorts and Twitter in between. Even the best people at social just want to do one or two platforms. Most of you don't want to do another platform because you don't have the humility to start at zero again. Yeah. Yeah. Watch this. Sean, how many people remember in 2017 when I was screaming at the top of my lungs to do TikTok, but you didn't jump on because you thought it was teenage girls and you didn't want to start over because you had Instagram followers? Raise your fucking hand and own it. That was huge. That was a huge miss. I'm gonna give you one right now. It's called Substack. How many people here consume Substack? Raise your hands. Almost no one. I'm telling you right now. Substack. I saw that man with the hat shake his head and said he was right, but I'm stunned by how few. Substack is fucking huge. It was predominantly newsletters, very long form written content for free or subscriptions. But I'm watching them move. They're bleeding very heavy into Twitter's category, and now they're doing video and podcast. Every one of you need to write down Substack. How many people here are embarrassed or, like, not in love with video, but they feel like they're very good writers? Raise your hand. I just want to see. So every one of you that just raised your hands, you have to spend two hours on ChatGPT or Google and learn what substack is. And you must start. These are platforms of attention. Attention is the only currency that matters. You can't sell shit if you don't have someone's attention. You cannot sell sell shit unless you have someone's attention. And you can do that door knocking, you can cold call, you can do email, but there's nothing you can do where you make one post and it can reach a million people for free. I'm about to leave. I'm good, thank you. I don't know where you're gonna go, Sean, but it's so fucking. You know what's funny about marketing? I think of it as health and wellness. Do you know how, not how many people here, by show of hands, would like to get a little more fit, get more muscle, get a little more tone, Raise your hand, watch this. Do you know how you do that? You fucking eat better. Stop putting shit in your body that's chemicals and eat cleaner. Go to the fucking gym and do the exercises properly. Easy done. There's a problem. Now go do it. My friends, information is fucking worthless. We live in a world where information has become worthless. Memorizing and knowing information is worthless. You can ask ChatGPT or Gemini anything and get the actual answer. Life is now fully about mindset, perspective, motivation, discipline, execution, and all the emotional intelligence strengths it requires for somebody to be a winner versus a loser in any game they play. And that's where we're at. And for some people it's great, and for other people, it's not great. I just wish on everyone here besides health, the accountability and self awareness to know they're fully in charge so they can go and get it.

[Sean]

I've heard you for a long time talk a lot about patients. Something I had absolutely nothing like, literally. Yeah. So when I'm talking to patients, it's pretty mother.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah. Yep.

[Sean]

And I started like watching a lot more like, okay, here's what I was making. Here's how long it took. So our. You know, you look at a company so young. I mean, it's a little over 10 years, but we have folks that have been here a year later, they're not gonna. Million dollars a month, 12 million a year, and it's still like, but I haven't, I haven't. Or somebody that's not even getting there yet. It's been around five months. Like, I quit. I'm like, well, quit and do what? I don't even have a job. Why are you gonna quit? I've been doing it five months. Can you talk to us about your thought process, perspective, and how you literally were able to take patience because it's a long game that you're playing. I don't. I don't have to. I'm sure I'm trying, like I'm trying harder to. And the sales part came easy to me. What you're talking about. Did not. The recruiting part didn't. Post didn't. And also, I didn't want to do work. I wanted to sell instant gratification. I didn't want to do the recruitment, social media stuff. So from a patient standpoint, how do we get people to continue to push?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Patience is easy for me because I don't give a fuck about other people's opinions about me.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

There is one core reason people are impatient. You want to make as much money as possible to buy dumb shit to impress people you don't even like. Let me say it's slow because a lot of people just got called out and they didn't clap. Patience is a problem for a lot of you in this room, specifically this room, because you're trying to make money as fast as possible to buy dumb shit like a watch, like a handbag, like a Lambo, like a house, like a dress to impress people that you don't even like. I'm getting a little excited, if I may listen friends on some real shit. I'm coming really with it. You guys know that I've always played this a little bit different than the people that look like me. You know it, I know it. You know it, I know it. You know. You know it. It's because not because I'm so great. It's because my mama was so great. Let me break it down for you. And now what I'm going to try to do is channel what my mama did for me. All Gary Vee's been doing for 15 years is trying to do for you what my mom did for me. Now let me tell you what my mom did for me. My mom didn't do the modern parenting shit where she would tell you you could do anything because you can't do anything. Not everyone I'm looking at right now can do every single thing. But she made me feel unstoppable and she clapped about the good shit. She grounded me when I got D's and F's, but she didn't make me think my self worth was in my grades. When I opened the door for an old lady when I was 8, she made it seem like I won a Nobel Peace Prize. She put kindness on a pedestal, but she also put accountability on a pedestal. When I did wrong shit, I would pay the price. There was no looking the other way. And she definitely didn't fucking deal with disrespect. If I, when I was like 11, I was scared to even think about disrespecting my mom because I felt like she knew that I was thinking it and she was gonna smack my face. My mother's an angel. I'm built on her shoulders. I'm a nice person. I get no validation from how much money I have or followers I have or the claps you gave me. When this man nicely said, let's give him the biggest claps and make him feel good, I was right there. I laughed. I'm like, that's not what makes me feel good. What makes me feel good is when the jets win a football game. Which is why I don't feel that good that fucking often. My friends, many of you are compromising. My friends, I'm really coming here for you. Many of you are compromising who you want to be as a human for the money. When you stop compromising and you start talking about the right stuff, the important stuff, there's always good and bad stuff in everything. When you focus on the right stuff, people will feel it. When people feel it, the thing you want to happen happens more often. It may take longer than the people that are selling the short shit. It might happen. You're absolutely right, Sean, and I appreciate the way you said it because you are business oriented and you're not 18 years old. I could tell the way you say, because I've done this a long time, you're playing long. I could feel that you know exactly what's happening, which is, I'll just say to all of you, if you think I've accomplished anything already, I haven't done shit yet. I haven't even fucking begun to build my empire. My foundation is uncomfortably strong, concrete and steel. Not a fancy chandelier or a Porsche in the lot. My shit is strong, non compromising. I will not compromise on kindness at any turn. I will only speak my fucking truth. I will only sell something I believe in. Period. End of story. And you could go back and look at videos of me 10, 11 years ago. And I said it then. I said, watch what's about to happen this next decade. A lot of people that look like me on the Internet or like me or people think we're the same, we're different. I'm different. And my difference will continue to grow from this point on. Because to your point, no matter what you sell, whatever you're saying on Social is going to attract the quality of what you're getting. You want a good team, you want good clients, you need to say good shit. If you say dumb shit, AKA sell all the sizzle, not the actual steak. You're putting garbage out, you're getting garbage in. No wonder you're rolling through a bunch of people, teammates, clients, team. Because you're selling the fucking small thing. Don't sell me on fucking bullshit lifestyle. Sell me on truth. Thank you.

[Sean]

All right. I got my business because I was so short for 14 years. And I want to tell people. And I didn't leave my job because I was making a lot of money. I hated my boss, period. And I didn't understand this earlier. You go out and get your first death night or high.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Right.

[Sean]

Policy dies. The whole world changes. Of course, my frustration. It is a frustration. Being open is when I had leads and I knew that it was about people's families. My mom didn't write. I didn't. Good for you. And I'm happy for this.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yep.

[Sean]

I didn't have that.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I get it. And in fact, if I may, because the way you said that, I would argue so much of my motivation as a public figure is a blend of gratitude with guilt. I know it was. You know what I mean? I don't sit here thinking I'm a great better. I don't think I'm better than real talk on that high horse I just came from. I promise you, I don't feel like I'm on a high horse. I don't think I'm better than anyone. I think I just got lucky because it wasn't just my mama. I was born in the Soviet Union. A lot of you were born in America. You won from day one. You didn't even realize it. I knew that I got lucky coming here. I was born in a shit place. It got even better for me when we got here. We were poor as fuck. I lived in a studio apartment with six, seven family members. I remember it. And when you have love in your home but you have no money, you are taught from the beginning that money has no association with happiness. That is the. Sean. The greatest gift that anyone can have in Earth. In my full belief. I've seen it a million times. I'm grown now. I'm fucking 50. I'm grown. The greatest gift anyone could be given is to be put into a home, born into a home that does not have much, but love is coming out of every fucking door and window. That motherfucker won. So I respect that. I know that.

[Sean]

And I think for me, seeing these families, because our target are leads, Middle American families, if they're buying life insurance, it's probably the first time they're buying and they might have a small policy here and there from work. And they probably filled something out because something happened, it affected them. Somebody died, they knew family member, work, somebody got sick, can't get life insurance. And now they're like, damn, I'm 40 years old.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yep.

[Sean]

I got a wife, three kids and no damn life insurance. I make X amount, she makes Y and she can't live without it. So you've been selling where? My frustration. I saw this, I was like, I don't want to hurt anybody. And I actually believe, and I'm being honest, I believe to my core that if somebody fills out a lead and we don't go ahead and put all our aside and give it the best shot we got, we're hurting literally. Because I'm not selling this. They get water on the fossil.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yep.

[Sean]

I'm selling home. So from a sales standpoint, what advice can you give all of us as it pertains to. They're calling people up. They got these. They're not cold calling anybody.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's the person buying the insurance.

[Sean]

Person buying the insurance.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Let's, let's break it down. I'm telling. I can jump right in this. This is the curve. We talked a little baseball. This is the curve ball I want you to think about. The greatest way to sell is to bring actual value. Convincing is a bad sales energy. Conviction is a tremendous sales energy. Let me break it down for you. The content you should be putting out on social is maybe educating people how to be more financially literate so they could afford the life insurance versus talking about the life insurance. You understand, Sean? I'm talking about this like chess or like boxing. Very hard to knock someone out if you throw right hooks every time, you've got to set them up with a jab. My point of view is if I have to sell life insurance, I'm selling it a year before I'm at talking to them by putting out content every day about stop buying fucking Starbucks for $5 a cup and put that $5 in your saving account and make some fucking Folgers at your house. I'm doing little pieces to educate people how to save a little bit of money. Because the biggest reason people that are in that demo don't buy insurance is because they can't afford it.

[Sean]

Because it buys my.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes, real talk. This is important. Everything in your life right now, relationship, buying, dumb shit, whatever, literally every single thing in your life right now that's a problem is 100% your fault. This is incredibly important because whatever you're about to tell me about your mommy or daddy or boss or circumstance. Someone else lived that life too and had the discipline to figure it out and get out of it. And since that person exists, what the fuck is your excuse? That's a macro statement. That's for y'.

[Sean]

All.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's what's keeping some of you in a C or D place instead of an A place. Every minute you spend on complaining or dwelling or blaming is a minute you're not spending on all. And by the way, if. If you're a complainer, if you could be honest with yourself right now, you may not want to even call it out, but to yourself, you're like, yeah, I do bitch a little too much. Pay very close attention to who listens to your complaining. There's only two groups, other losers or someone who loves you and your family. And they don't realize and they're just enabling you. So there's incredible systematic issues with every place on Earth. I could sit here for the next 44 hours and talk about things that are in place that create separation of wealth, systematic racism, sexism. We could talk about it forever. But again, when there are people that look the part. Born in Gary, Indiana, to an alcoholic father that get out of the it. And when I ask you again, what are you going to do? Are you like, Sean, do you know that there's women in this audience that immediately need to break up with their fucking idiot guy, But for whatever life circumstances, they're insecure and they need that companionship or that validation or they're, by the way, I had this issue. They just like 90. Like, I struggle with. To this day, I just want to help people that are broken. I was trained that way. I grew up that way. Like, whatever it is, all of this comes down to you. You can sit and have a glass of wine with your girlfriend and both shit up on your boyfriends, but you can also just break up with the fucking loser, huh? The ladies are getting excited. You should see their fucking faces. I see you all. Same for guys. Same for partners. Same for siblings. Same for people in family businesses with their dad or best friend. All of this is on you. So, yes, I think they should be making content, educating people. Hey, do you know why you're buying these things? You're buying these things to close gaps of insecurity, right? You're choosing convenience over safety. You're taking Uber instead of the bus. But that 20 bucks three times a week is the money you need to fucking have life insurance. Yes, bro, I'm cooking. I'm fucking cooking, bro. So again, what I'm trying to get people here to think about is intentionality. Have the discipline to make content on LinkedIn and YouTube shorts and TikTok. But then what are you gonna say if you're gonna make all your content like here's the lifestyle watches and Lambos. Fine, knock yourself out. You're going to lose eventually, I promise you. I've watched the movie a hundred times. But if you're gonna put out good shit consistently, forever, you're gonna find a very different outcome. And that is the the pressure. I'm pressing this crowd, Sean, you know, I'm pressing them right now. I'm pressing y' all out of straight love, cuz it's the only answer. That's it.

[Sean]

I will ask people. When I got my insurance license, I said, what's the best way to build marathon guy to how building this fastest I see amazing, smart. You have the most agents. Walk me through it from any do I know your team takes more I and he said, all right, do you give a what people think? I'm like, no, not at all. For many different reasons. Functional. I don't give a. He says, all right, I need to stream and yell about what you're building. Let people talk about it. Put content about recruiting and about how much what what we can do. The opportunity. I mean his knee based body. Hundreds of millions of people happy to say they're going to have any. So there's plenty of prospects. I'm like, cool, I'll do it. So this is the time to walk around. The last day is like, hey man, how come you don't recruit?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm just curious.

[Sean]

You don't need. I'm just wondering. And overwhelmingly people say I just am uncomfortable talking about what I do and I see in what way. So they're not trying to impress anybody. They're not like I'm trying to impress. They're scared. Like, well, I put the content out. My friends talk this. Friends talk this one ask them what we doing. They'll say, send me messages like they want to send me. The other day, the guy, he said, he sent this. He said, what would you say now I'll be honest. I was like, I would say you if somebody said to me, but you don't need to say that because you're not gonna do that. Why don't you ask him why he's asking? Because people ask you questions. One or two reasons. A guy told me a long time they want to believe it. They want the information or they're trying to me and I was like, does the guy want information from you? He said no, he's trying to mess. We have so many people out here. They, dude, I can see them with their phones. They do video or they think about typing out a post about life insurance, about recruiting, about hiring, about what it can do part time, full time. And they don't do it because they're paralyzed. They're not trying to impress, they're paralyzed.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Or they don't fully believe it, which is fine too. Like, this is just life up here. Like you're grown friends. You're grown. You're right, Sean. Like they need to be posting. But if they're posting because they're scared about other people shitting on them, they need to ask the next question. Are you insecure? Or maybe you don't believe in the format and that's okay too. This is why what I think universally they can all agree with, which is what I want them to post about, is about the actual service of insurance and teach people how to get to a place of affording it and then that good will trickle down again. Create the things they want. You understand? It's just the real reality of it. It's cause it's either you actually don't care about what other people think, which is great, or it's not that you don't believe in the format. Fine, you're allowed. You can change your mind and everyone here can go do whatever the fuck they want, right? But what you can't do is be half pregnant and a lot of motherfuckers I'm looking, looking at right now are half fucking pregnant. Listen, I just want everyone literally in this room to be good. They're not my children. No one here is my first cousin. Like, I can only do so much, but I'm obsessed when I say yes, that I'm going to come and talk to bring value. And what I'm telling people is either go in the ring fully or don't go in the ring fully. Both are allowed. But you need to make a decision because otherwise you're gonna be caught and then you're not here and not there. And that's just the worst fucking place to be. You understand? But what I think, and I apologize because I just want to keep going, what I know you can all agree on is teaching people how to be fiscally responsible. Little tidbits like that educate them truly on the value of, like, the real reason, the peace of mind that comes along with actually having insurance you know, the real virtues and the values that will really work for everyone genuinely. It will.

[Sean]

You were talking about Sage real quick. One of the problems that in Albion, I was going out of my job, I had never built a business. So early on 20, 21, real estate, I had spent money. Yeah, I had a job before. They paid me. I didn't spend money, they paid me. I didn't have a lot of money. And I joined my real estate company. Like it cost this to do this, this, do that, this. But I again went to somebody who's doing well and I'm like, Frank. He's like, dude, you got to spend the money marketing. Back then.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Newspaper, right? Direct mail.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah. And, and, and build. Got an email list and one of my. When I see a lot of people, I look at what they're doing and I said, if you bought more top producers up here, if you brought one to 100, not even the next thousand or 2,000, and I said, how much money do you spend on leads? Unequivocally, I can take the amount of money spends because it is life insurance, it's need based. You're just calling people and I can take it. All right, here's the correlation. Look how much I spend, here's how much. There's no talent. It's not baseball. There's zero talent. How do we get people to understand that without investing in that business, you can start going away?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, a couple things I do think it's a mental talent, it's not a physical talent like baseball. Number two, let's just talk macro. The single biggest reason that I built real companies in my life is because I don't start business businesses to take money out of it, to buy things for me. I start businesses to take the money that the business makes to put it back in the business to make it bigger. It is not lost to me that 95% of this audience, not because you're good or bad, it's just literally 95% of humans literally think about their entrepreneurial ventures or their businesses as jobs. This is important. You take the money out to live on when it becomes your thing and you're trying to build something, right, the job, the business, your org is what needs the money, not you. Too many people try to do something to get the money out to buy those dumb things I told you about. There's too many people here that think money leads to that happy. You actually think a bigger home with seven rooms you never go in will make you happier? Rachel, every fucking person has way Too many rooms. Almost everyone I know that's done well that lives outside of New York City or a city has a home with literally six rooms that no one's ever been in, right? Or things just stuff like again, too many people are taking the money out, all the money back in. Kudos to my father. It blew me away. Like he just never really everything he made. I mean, I built my Dad's business from 22 to 34 years old and got paid 50 to 80,000 a year during that 12 year window. Friends, who here is under 34 years old? Stand up right now. Stand up if you're under 34. Jesus Christ. You were right, they are young. Everybody who's standing, I need you to hear this. Cause you're younger. Stand back up. Don't be lazy on me. You're under 34. Oh, you're older. Fuck, you look great. I was making 50, 60, 70, up to 80,000 by the time I got to $34 a year. Now you know why I believe in patience. Sit down. Thank you. So I, I not part of a team. Not needing your fucking help for leads. I myself on my fucking back solo. Pops went right into the passenger sheet. I drove, I took that business from 3 to 65 million in sales. No credit line, no venture capital, no rich friend gave me money. I made money, put it back in. Made money, put it back in. I did that. Sometimes people want to take a potshot of me in public. They're like, don't listen to this guy. His dad gave him a liquor store motherfucker. My dad still owns the liquor store right now. That motherfucker didn't do shit other than drop that sperm to create the fucking guy. So he did everything but for the business. I built that business for my dad. I'm one of the rarest fucking humans on earth. My mom was so great. I was so grateful for my dad working every minute as an immigrant. So my mom home. I was smart. I was like, damn, mom is the best. But thank God dad fucking worked every minute because we had no fucking money and my mom didn't work. My dad built it 12 hours a day. I was so obsessed. I still am so obsessed with my parents. I'm like, fuck, man. I'm Kobe and LeBron and Jordan and Brady. Fuck it. I'm give my first decade to them. And that's what I did. And at 34 years old, I started VaynerMedia, my current company. I had no money. I had to start the company in the conference room of another company because I had no money for rent. That's the business I started at 34 this year. That business, you 400 million in sales. I built that. While I built the Gary Vee Brand 6 New York Times best selling books, one of the biggest sports agencies in the world with my brother, a massive restaurant group. I'm building the next fucking Pokemon and Marvel right now with Be Friends like. And all of it's happening because every interaction I have, I want to give more value to the other person than I extract from myself. Because I don't need anything. Because I don't need to buy anything. Cause I don't need to buy anything to prove anything to anyone, including myself. You understand? You need to get there. How the fuck are you gonna have discipline to make content and call people all day long if you don't feel good? People are always like, how would you have so much energy? Because I'm good. Cause I'm light. By the way, on the record, I sleep fucking seven, eight hours a day. It's just when I'm awake, I'm fucking effect.

[Sean]

I'm curious because I said it takes no talent. He said it doesn't take physical talent, but it takes mental talent. In your opinion, what do you mean by that?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The shit I was just talking about, brother, right? Like, notice what I said to them. I'm like, look, I don't want to judge. I don't judge. I really. By the way, the biggest issue in our society right now is that everyone wants to judge everyone, right? The reason we're fighting. Do you know how crazy politics is? Could you, you know why I never fucking argue with people about politics. Could you imagine having the audacity to think every person on earth should see the world exactly how you saw it, even though we've all had very different upbringings. Wow is right. For example, for example, early in my career, you guys can see how I talk. Some of you caught me back in 0908 when I was coming up. This is who I was. I went to Mobile, Alabama to give a speech. I came out, I was feeling good too, Sean. I was like hot, right? It was that first year, I was like, oh fuck, I'm the guy. I came out and I was like social. And I started cursing. These motherfuckers booed me the fuck out of there because I was a Jersey fucking street kid. I thought cursing was normal.

[Sean]

But.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

But these fucking churchgoing fucking Southern grandmas fucked me up. And there was obviously some people like, you know, hitting me up on Twitter and sorry, they don't get it. They definitely do get it. They were raised by a woman that said to them, cursing's the devil. I came out and I was the fucking devil. I deserve to get booed, you know? So what I know is this, is that why I was willing to do that back then, Why I am who I am, why Every word that came out of my mouth right now is because I'm living my actual truth. And I just want to push everyone here to actually live your truth, which is why. Notice what I said. I just know a lot of people here are compromising, you know, in different ways. I don't know what it is. I don't know. Including. Let me give you the good one. I think a lot of people here think they need to wear a suit and have a nice watch and have a nice car to have the perception of success, to build more success. But they're compromising because they're like me and they're humble and simple and it's fucking them up, you know, by the way. But other people, like, this is why I never shit on people that are wear suits or have watches for. Some people, they really like it. They like the craftsmanship. They're not doing it for the flex. They like it. They like actually understand the fucking switches in there. I don't fucking know. I really have no judgment. I don't think anything is better than anything. I think compromising what's in your soul is a death sentence. To have the mental talent to get to the self awareness of what I'm talking about, to get to the level of humility. I wish all of you really knew me. Straight up, I really wish you knew me. One of my favorite things is when people hear stuff like this from me. Some of you might be thinking this actually right now, which is okay, I understand. They're like, yeah, you're saying this now because you got it. And I'm saying to you, I got it because I thought like this forever. And I can't say I'm saying. And I appreciate the class, but you can't really believe me. But you know who believes me? My fourth grade class, My ninth grade class. The homies that grew up with me, they know I never compromised on being nice. Bro, do you know how hard it was to be nice in New Jersey in 1993? In high school, the whole currency was being mean. Like the pretty girls was wouldn't even like you if you weren't a dick. And pretty girls matter in high school, you know, Like I just wasn't willing to compromise I was just not gonna make fun of anyone. And if my friends were all doing it, I was just willing to. Do you know how much strength that takes? I just never compromised my morals. I just would never fold. I won't fold for what? For what? And I just think a lot of people are. And I get it, I really do. Cause when you get desperate, you're like, I need to money. Like a lot of people just said, I'll compromise my morals for my children. I get it, I get it. But there's so many ways to do it. That's what's so amazing about the world right now, Sean. Everyone's like, shit's terrible. I'm like, it really isn't like, you know, for individual people. Of course there's a million like, like, shit could be terrible in any moment. Shit could be terrible for me right now. My parents could be driving right now, now and have a car accident, die. I'm a 50 year old white male with money. Is my life good? Not if that happens. Like, we have no empathy and compassion for people anymore. Everyone just assumes everyone's got it so good. I assume everyone's got it bad. When someone's a dick to me at the airport, I'm not trying to fight back. I'm worried. Why he's upset. We've lost complete compassion. We have no empathy, we have no sympathy. We politicized the everything for no fucking reason. And what's really happening out here, Sean, What's really happening here is politicians, parents, bosses and companies have figured out something unfortunate. People are really tricked when you weaponize fear. But now I ask you, when you go sell some life insurance tomorrow, are you selling on fear? Because I know a lot of people do. Because I watched a lot of videos of people in this room on the way out here to get a sense of who I was talking to. Let me promise you the most important truth in the human race, which is why we're still all here. Fear and hate are really good at winning the first three and a half quarters of a football game. But love and hope and optimism wins the game in the end. Thank you for that.

[Sean]

This is the amount of customers you make.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Thank you. Seriously good person.

[Sean]

You set us off the way we should be sent on.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Thank you.

[Sean]

Hey, y', all, great advice, believe me. Don't compromise your soul. Is what a death sentence?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Death sentence. Thank you, everybody. Everybody. If you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this journey see you later.