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The GaryVee Audio Experience
The Biggest Mindset Shift Your Business Needs Today, Why AI Is Shaking Up Every Industry & How To Scale | GaryVee Jobber Keynote
00:38:17
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- [00:00]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yo, everybody, thank you so much for listening to this episode. It would mean the world to me if you could leave a review. 5 star 4 star 3 star Fuck it. 2 star 1 star. Honest feedback's fine. All right, back to the show.
- [00:12]
Jobber Host
In today's episode of the Gary Vee Audio Experience, we're sharing a recent keynote that Gary gave at Jobbers Summit, a conference dedicated to empowering home service entrepreneurs and small business owners. He talks about the biggest mindset shifts entrepreneurs need right now, like why AI is about to shake up every industry, why small businesses are struggling to keep up, and how to actually scale without losing what makes you great. He doesn't hold back on the hard truths about leadership, hiring and marketing. In a world that's changing faster than ever. If you're trying to grow your business, avoid burnout, or just get one step ahead of the competition, this is the conversation you need to start the keynote. Jobber co founder Sam asked Gary what's changed in the last several years in the entrepreneurship and tech landscape. This is what Gary had to say.
- [00:56]
Gary Vaynerchuk
There's always change and I think I'm very passionate to stay on top of it because I think ultimately if you're not adjusting to the truth, you become vulnerable. And I think I have a lot of empathy for the people that are on the other side here. You're doing your day to day gig, you know, and sometimes it's hard to pop up your head and see what's going on. And so I'm locked in. I'm ready to go.
- [01:19]
Sam
Sam, awesome. Like my co founder always says, you can't be so busy chopping wood you forget to sharpen the axe. So everyone, I am going to get as much out of Gary as I can in the next 40 minutes. So let's dive right in. When we spoke first in 2021, Gary, you really drove home your admiration for home service businesses and how essential they are to the well being of their communities. And especially given the COVID moment that we were in at the time. What are the biggest things that you think have changed since then? What do you think makes blue collar pros vital in today's economy? And how can they leverage that vitality to the benefit of their success?
- [02:02]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Look, I think the answer is not much. And in reality, I don't think much was different in 01 than 1991. I mean, it's not very complicated to understand that people that actually do things are important to the world. And so, you know, I don't think much has changed. Honestly, the biggest thing that's changed is I think more people understand the vibrant nature of the economic and entrepreneurial opportunities within the industry. I think more people in 2025 think about getting into this business than people did in 2021 and people did in 2015. And so potentially more competition for the people that are watching right now. You have a lot more 22 year olds that are like, wait a minute, I'm not capable of starting the next Facebook, but I want to make a couple hundred thousand a year. And I love this stuff. I've done it around the house, or I'm interested in it, or I watch videos about it, or my dad did it, or my uncle did it, or my grandma did it. And so I think the biggest change that I see in the consumer data and popular culture is there's more respect for it and there's more understanding. There's opportunity within it.
- [03:26]
Sam
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, we see that through our. We do some quarterly and annual reports that we put out at Jobber. We talk to young people to try and understand, you know, what is motivating them, what's holding them back maybe from pursuing a career in the trades. And a lot of people tell us, you know, it's just maybe, you know, taking out a bunch of student debt and going to university is. Is not maybe the right path to success and certainly not the most immediate path to entrepreneurship.
- [03:54]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Nobody change in their minds. I think nobody's gonna be confused by what I said here five to seven years ago. I think people were more bougie and would look down on a career in this. Right. It's kind of like chefs, you're the help. I don't think that's the exact temperament anymore. And I think people have been educated on how lucrative this business can be if you, like any other business, are good at it. And I think that we've got a better collective point of view on the industry that's a little bit more elevated. And I think most humans are insecure and care about being a lawyer or doctor or entrepreneur, you know what I mean? And I think that there's more. We've put more respect on the name of this game and I think it's a very good thing.
- [04:45]
Sam
That's awesome to hear from. I mean, you have a vantage point on sort of what's going on out there that I think covers a pretty broad landscape. So that's really good to hear that you're seeing that. We're seeing that, yeah.
- [04:56]
Gary Vaynerchuk
To your point, just to educate everybody on that, I'm talking about 18 year old whiz kids who used to want to build an app. Getting interested in asking me directly, like, what do you think about this industry? I hear I can make some money on it and I like it in theory, all the way to private equity leaders, the biggest in the world, sitting with me and being like, hey, Gary, I'm thinking about consolidating 15 or 50 of these or 100 of these. What do you think about the marketing plan? So you're getting it from every angle. And even parents getting DMs. What you just spoke about getting DMs from parents saying, hey, Gary, Vee, I need your advice. My kid doesn't want to go to college in parentheses, thanks to you because I put out a lot of content of that. They're thinking about going into H vac or plumbing or this or that. What do you think? No question, do I feel it. And I'm happy for it because makes a lot of sense to me.
- [05:53]
Sam
Yeah, it's a good move. So we both, huge entrepreneurship fans, love entrepreneurs. I know you'll agree that the entrepreneurs in the audience today should be damn proud of themselves. They've taken the leap of faith, you know, really put themselves out there, chosen the harder path in pursuit of, you know, their own personal vision of freedom and success. However, you know, once you're in the day to day of running a business, it is usually not what you think it's going to be. There's just a lot of bullshit to deal with. And, you know, you're usually drowning in a bunch of less don't want to deal with.
- [06:24]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, less.
- [06:25]
Sam
How do you deal with that?
- [06:25]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, less Yachts and private jets and bottles and dudes with abs and pretty girls and much more like entitled employees and losing a piece of business and sleepless nights. If you're gonna have to go back to a job and look shitty in front of your friends and relatives because you talked a big game that you were gonna build a business. Like, entrepreneurship's incredibly lonely and very challenging. You know, for me personally, Sam, there was no choice. I've literally done nothing else. I genuinely believe what I'm about to say. I would be fired or quit any job I would have taken pretty fast. Not because I'm a bad guy or I'm entitled. I am just truly someone who's incapable of breathing if he's not creating some sort of entrepreneurial venture for himself. So for the people that are like me that are on this call, I would just say, you know, like, we have no choice. That'd be like asking us, why do you know, how do you breathe oxygen? That would literally you asking me, like, entrepreneurship, to me, the comp is oxygen. I don't know. Cause I would die, I guess, pretty quickly if I stopped breathing, you know? And so I think for the people that are half in, right, they have 50% entrepreneurial tendencies, 50% the fear that comes along with entrepreneurship. And think about getting a good job. What I would say to them is just make sure you see it all the way through. Let it go out of business or right to the cusp of it. Because what you don't want to do is jump too early, go back into a job because you see your savings going down, and then live with regret your whole life. Now, I only God knows, I surely don't know what is if your business was gonna turn around in six months or you just would have wasted six more months of your savings. What I do know is that I've been a public figure in entrepreneurship for almost 20 years now, and I've read unlimited emails. And the people that jump too early then are always asking, what if? And a regret for the rest of their lives. And the people that went to zero knew that they weren't capable and went back to a job and lived their lives. And so, look, I don't like to talk about how another man or woman should spend their. And people have bills and responsibilities. And I'm not sitting here saying, waste your savings to play entrepreneurship for another six months. In fact, if you know that you're not an entrepreneur 18 months in now, you've been on this journey. You're watching right now because you're kind of hoping for a Hail Mary from me in this conference, but you're really sitting there and you're like, I've been doing this for 18 months. This is. And you're losing money and you're tapping into your savings. If you're 100% sure, shut down the company and get a job. But if you're not 100% sure, fight as long as humanly possible. Because regret is much more poisonous than an empty bank account to the soul of a human.
- [09:36]
Sam
Yeah, yeah, that resonates. I think probably there's a lot of nodding heads in. In the audience. And it just really recognizes the fact that. That perseverance and tenacity and grit are some of the most important characteristics in entrepreneurship. You have to push, you have to fight.
- [09:56]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I'll give you another one, though. It's not. But I will say, to balance grit and Perseverance is self awareness and lack of delusion. Sam on the counter. I've met kids and people that have come. You know, I'm a funny character. I interacted with a lot of random situations on the street, in my office. Sometimes I just say, yes, you can come for ten minutes, one out of every hundred emails or DMs, or a thousand or now probably ten thousand. And I've sat in many conversations where the person's completely delusional. They're like, gary, any minute now. I'm like, no. I'm like, you stink at this the way I stink at skiing and many other things. And so you really, really, really should shut down this company. And I'm not a dream crusher. If I see 1%, I'm an optimist and I'll push. So I think, yes, grit and tenacity and everybody should fight. But I implore and I beg everyone to really think about self awareness. Look at the data. If you've been losing money for four years, there's somebody watching, potentially, who inherited 80k from cr grandma and has been like, deducting that every year because they're losing. You've got to be honest with yourself and self aware, and that's important.
- [11:17]
Sam
I want to talk about leadership a little bit. Gary, you talk a lot about this, and empathy and kindness are themes that come up a lot. We are talking to a group of entrepreneurs today that are. They're small businesses, one to 50 employees. Think about it. But you and I both know the vast majority of all small businesses are maybe just a couple or a few employees. Leadership means something very different. And I think, you know, these concepts of kindness and empathy. I'm just really curious to hear how you think that applies in the context of truly small business.
- [11:51]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, look, what does it mean? Yeah, I've been involved very aggressively with multiple small businesses, you know, VaynerMedia, Veefriends, VaynerSports, Wine Library. You know, most of my companies, all of my company, I've never bought a company that had employees. All of my companies have started with less than a dozen employees. So I've only known this world and obviously I've built some companies that get bigger. First of all, I think kindness, empathy, compassion for your employees, one of the biggest mistakes. And this is gonna hit right. I'm about to put a spear right through a lot of people's chest. A lot of people on this call think these people are theirs. A lot of people think if I pay someone, I own them, they owe me, like they're lucky to have a job like they get very audacious. And so the first thing I would say is be a human being. Because what everyone here that's watching is looking for in their first 10 employees is, is continuity and retention. Right now, you as a boss, if Johnny stinks, you can fire them. You don't wanna retain somebody bad. But the biggest vulnerability, Sam, to most of the businesses here. Here's a good one. Let me bounce around a little bit. Close your eyes everybody, right now and make pretend the person that you believe is the most important employee in your company quits tomorrow. I know you know this, Sam, cause you're of this business. For a lot of people on this call, that is a mega blow. For some people it's a death blow because their number one employee is actually more important than them. For a lot of people it's a dent. Like in fighting terms, it's a knockdown. And they might get up at nine and you know, be blurry. For the best crew here, their number two and three can easily absorb that. And it's a non event. So the biggest thing I tell people is I don't think kindness and empathy and compassion is a. I don't think it's something altruistic or funny or like I want to look good. I think it's practical.
- [14:07]
Sam
Yeah, it's self preservation. I mean 100% retain your best people. And you.
- [14:12]
Gary Vaynerchuk
And by the way, by the way, there's a lot of words matter. You just said retain your best people. I think some people are good to their best person and then bad to everybody else. For most businesses, you need your worst employee too.
- [14:26]
Sam
Yeah. Your best people see that.
- [14:29]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes. And that becomes the culture. If you treat your weakest link similarish. Cause I think your best link deserves a little bit of extra love. But if you're in the same general ballpark of humanity, like you're not hugging your best guy and cursing out your worst guy. If you're in the same pocket, you're cordial, you're warm. And I'll say another thing about leadership and employees and all this theme. I tell my direct reports and my top people in my companies, I don't need a peacetime general. I don't need you to be a leader when it's good, when it's prosperous. I'm not paying you or you're not my number one guy or gal when it's easy. I need you when it's hard. And so as leaders, a lot of owners that are on this call, they're fine when things are good, but as soon as they feel stress, they start to get nasty because they're scared and it starts to show up. The form of a leader is to take all the pressure and have it stop with you, reformulate it, and make it productive underneath you.
- [15:42]
Sam
Yeah.
- [15:44]
Gary Vaynerchuk
That. If you're a leader and you're just passing through the anxiety of paying bills, bad customers, losing a big account, being worried if you're taking that on and it's getting fully to your team in the same pure form, you're not a fucking leader. You're a losing player.
- [16:02]
Sam
Yeah. People's true colors tend to show in those moments too.
- [16:06]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I mean, that's kind of adversity exposes. Adversity exposes, brother.
- [16:12]
Sam
Yeah. It's a good lesson, I think, for people probably to pay very close attention to how they behave and how they react in those difficult moments when things start to get tough, kind of take a beat and take a deep breath and consider that what you do next is going to define the culture of your business.
- [16:31]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Not only the culture. What you do next, in how we're framing this, I think it's gonna help a lot of people is probably the best indicator of how healthy and financially stable and how much money you're gonna make sure. What does this industry have without its people? What do you guys sell? You're not slinging sneakers to people. If your people situation isn't good, what are you on this call, Your pipes are the same. The replacement of the physical. I can buy from anyone. If Ricky or Sally is a jerk when they're at my house doing stuff, I don't like your company. Ricky and Sally are always going to be a jerk based on the owner. Here's why. If Ricky and Sally are good or they're reliable, that's a good one, Sam, for this industry. If they're reliable but you know they're a jerk and you haven't fired them because you're scared to. You can't find someone reliable, that's your fault. If. If Ricky and Sally are a jerk because you're a dick and they don't like who they work for and that shows up, that's also your fault. So it's always your fault as an.
- [17:46]
Sam
Owner, and that's going to hurt your bottom line.
- [17:49]
Gary Vaynerchuk
It's just a matter of time. Especially based on how we started this call. New kids are coming into this industry.
- [17:57]
Sam
So let's talk about growth then. So a lot of people on the call, they want to grow. They've got growth goals. They want to grow, but they're worried about losing that sort of for the ones who have done it really well, they're worried about losing the personal touch that's gotten them to where they are with their customers and with their employees. So how should leaders approach the challenge of growth and the objective and the desire to grow without sacrificing quality and the connection with their employees and their customers?
- [18:27]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Let's start.
- [18:28]
Sam
Worked so hard to build.
- [18:29]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, let's start with connection with employees. Until you have 100 employees, you don't have that many employees that you can't do 5 minute check ins with texting, group dinners, like I don't want to hear it. I've seen it 100,000 times. Not just by me. So unless you have 100 employees and going to 500, I don't want to hear from you. And Sam, I'm going to assume a majority of people here are not close to 100 employees.
- [18:56]
Sam
Yeah.
- [18:56]
Gary Vaynerchuk
So let's. You're going to. If you want to. Sam, there's people here that have four employees that are not connected to their employees, that are not taking them out to a Tuesday night dinner, that are not texting them like happy birthday, that are not like saying hi in the hallway. I have 2,000 employees and do that shit.
- [19:12]
Sam
Yeah.
- [19:14]
Gary Vaynerchuk
So that I don't want to hear about. Now on same front on customers. Sam, what's your gut on how many customers? You're going to go very average here and guess but like how many customers are we talking about for somebody here that they're going to interact with this year?
- [19:31]
Sam
Yeah, I mean it depends.
- [19:32]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I know, I know.
- [19:33]
Sam
Currently on the industry, but 50 to a couple hundred or a few hundred.
- [19:37]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I mean, I think I emailed 50 customers yesterday. Yesterday. I'm being ser. I'm not making that up. Yes, Monday. Yeah, yesterday. Yeah. Talk about a facade of excuse. You know what's funny about excuses, Sam, do you know that all of us are disciplined in the things that we prioritize or like all of us, whether it's the gym or eating or parenting or, or work, everyone here is disciplined at something. You need to be disciplined with growth. You need to continue to, you know, you might not be able to do every job. You know, if somebody here is scared of like they used to be the person hands on doing the job and they're scared to hire Dustin and he doesn't do as good of a job. I respect that. But don't forget about the I'm sorry and the fixing it up, you know, like People ask me a lot back in the day because I've scaled businesses fast. They're like, how? And I'm like, the power of. I'm sorry. Like if I hire people and they do a worse job than I would have done, I have the ability to. The power of refunding every day of my life. I think, well, if this goes catastrophic, I can always give them the money back. I could. You know, small businesses, you might not be able to afford it. I get it. But I think people demonize one bad. You know, like, you know, we hear this a lot. It's like not the issue. Isn't the issue. How you address the issue is. Right, right. In fact, there was a time I wrote a book called the thank you Economy. I'm looking at it right now. I don't remember if I put it in the book or if I took it out at the last minute because everybody around me was freaked out by it. But I almost recommended as a business strategy to fuck up on purpose just for the. I'm sorry. I felt the aggressive, over the top. I'm sorry to a screw up was actually more valuable than just doing the job right.
- [21:48]
Sam
That's really interesting. Getting some reps in, recovering and doing what's necessary to get back to the good place.
- [21:56]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Let's talk it out. Anything is fixable if you have good intent. Anything is fixable if you have good intent.
- [22:04]
Sam
That's good philosophical advice.
- [22:07]
Gary Vaynerchuk
And I think you're right. I think it's philosophical advice and I would use a different word. I think it's business strategy that if you then execute against that strategy, you will grow your business. You will not be crippled by. And by the way, let me go into very deep psychology of this industry and industries like it. A lot of Sam, this is gonna blow your mind. Cause I've spent a lot of time on this back in the day. It's fun to bring it back up. I haven't looked at this psychology in a long time. Do you know there's some people, Sam here that don't wanna hire people that are better at the craft than they are because their self esteem is wrapped up in them being better at the actual job. And so they literally have not built a bigger business because they don't even realize this. It's subconscious. They kind of razz on a guy who's doing a job. Like they find something that was wrong even though it was probably just fine. They need this belief that they're the best at hanging the shingle or fixing the fucking pipe. Or fixing the window or putting up the shingle or redoing the roof or fixing the faucet or re plastering the wall. Like they have this. Their identity is in their hands in craftsmanship and so they're sandbagging their business. Cause they're not giving craftsmen and women the breathing room and the accolades and the trophies and the self esteem boosts because they themselves want to feel like they're the best at it. It's wild. I see it all the time, 100%.
- [23:40]
Sam
And that will 100% of the time limit your ability to 100%?
- [23:43]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Of course you won't scale.
- [23:45]
Sam
All right, let's talk about change. I mean, growth then leads to change. Of course. And I think there's just dozens and dozens of forces pushing and pulling on consumer attention and preferences. This is an area of change that I think a lot of entrepreneurs, small business pay attention to. You really want to deliver value to customers. So in what ways have you noticed consumer expectations changing the most over the past handful of years? And you know, how should small business owners be thinking about and reacting to that?
- [24:16]
Gary Vaynerchuk
The place that I'm most interested in is how everybody here gets their business. You know, a lot of people here get their business word of mouth. And that's why we've been stressing for the first 25 minutes all the things we just talked about. Everything I just talked about literally for the last 20 minutes is to keep the word of mouth engine going. But there's also discoverability. And so, you know, the biggest change is, let's go back to when I was a kid, if my mom or dad needed somebody, yes, word of mouth was in play, but boy, oh boy, the yellow pages were in play too. Right. And that's why everybody called their companies aaa, H Vac, AAA Plumbing, AAA Gardening and Roofing. Because you showed up first. Yep. I think some of the kids may not know that's why every company was called aaa. Because before there was Google Search, there was that. Now as everybody here knows, Google became a major engine right now. Need a plumber near me? Major. I think the biggest thing in the world right now is AI is starting to eat up. Chatbots is starting to eat up search. Sam, are you starting to use Chat GPT instead of Google yet or not yet?
- [25:26]
Sam
Yeah. Or other AI tools or other. 100%. Yeah.
- [25:29]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Wild, right?
- [25:30]
Sam
Yeah.
- [25:31]
Gary Vaynerchuk
And how old are you?
- [25:32]
Sam
42, I think.
- [25:34]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Right. So I say that because this is not a 15 year old reality. I'm already. I mean it was fun to be in the holidays I was down in Florida, a lot of 60, 70, 80 year olds and I get to do my anthropology work and I'm walking by, you know, anytime I walk by on vacation like I just did, you know, eight. This is the story I'm telling eight 65 to 80 year olds. Sure enough, watching two, I got to catch like 17 seconds of this. Basically what I was able to gather, two 60 to 80 year olds. Actually 70 to 90 year olds, they weren't 60. Showing the rest of the table how to use ChatGPT. And so I think one thing, so let me say this very loud. Anybody here who gets most of their business from Google, AdWords and SEO and SEM, they better start hedging. It's not gonna be tomorrow, but in three, four years it's gonna be a different environment. The other thing is trust. I still believe every person on this call if they themselves made one to two social media videos a day and posted on every platform and showed people tricks of the trade. My favorite, I always say this, I probably said it in 01 how not to hire me to help you. Cause you could just fix this valve or anything that builds trust. I'm very hot on personal brand continues to be important and what I like now is best tactics is if you post it and you normally get 10 views but this one gets 5,000 organically but you're only doing business in North Dakota. You then take that video and you run a couple hundred dollars of ads in a 30 mile radius of your home or your home office or your office. And so now you've taken creative that works, but you make it localized and that actually leads to business.
- [27:21]
Sam
Very interesting. I want to hear a little bit more about your thoughts on AI. AI is obviously one of the greatest change agents we've seen. And I just revealed I'm 42, like maybe in my life. It's amazing how much it has changed so far and how much it stands to to change in the future. You've likened AI to like a tidal wave and you've talked a lot about the importance of being prepared for it and you just can't ignore it. I think, you know, blue collar pros are in a really great position to benefit from this tidal wave because in.
- [27:55]
Gary Vaynerchuk
The first wave, I think the thing that I'm sure you know, the first wave, yes, it makes you so much more efficient. Everybody here should start learning how to be a prompt engineer.
- [28:03]
Sam
Google that.
- [28:04]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Prompt engineer. I'm sorry to jump in, but the one thing that I do want everybody to pay attention to Is I saw the headline. I didn't watch it yet, but like, did I see, right, that Elon's talking about like making a million robots in two years? And you've got like, you know, the Nvidia guy talking about this and that, like, you know, look, I mean, do I believe in 10 years that the person that comes to build something in my home is a robot? There was that Megan Fox movie on Netflix, right? And all the workers of the job are robots. I think you gotta pay attention, brother.
- [28:35]
Sam
Yeah, advances in robotics certainly will threaten on some time horizon, but I think it may be a long time, at least today.
- [28:45]
Gary Vaynerchuk
But Sam, I'm sorry to interrupt. I think it's important and I'm not here to scare and honestly I'm saying this because I think it actually can lead to offense. Let me ask you, let me reverse this. Sam. Do you believe everybody here should think about how they build their business and what they do for a living and how they do it with the belief that 17 years from today, robotics advancement will get to a place where a robot may come to the home and do the job? I'm asking you yes or no, do you think 17 is a number? What would you say, yes or no to that?
- [29:21]
Sam
17 years? I mean, gun to the head, yes or no? I would say a lot is going to change in 17 years. You should be thinking about building your business with as much optionality as possible and understanding that technology is going to dramatically change the way that you operate.
- [29:38]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I think it's valid.
- [29:40]
Sam
Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, people are hesitant, like, what do you do? And I mean, there are.
- [29:45]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, man, I don't want a fucking robot to come into my house. Like, what if it. Like, at first there's going to be enormous amounts of fear. At first it's going to be like, wait, my kids are home with my girl. And like the robot comes over and what if the robot fucking malfunctions? And like, like we're going to be scared of that.
- [30:01]
Sam
We're going to be scared for adoption today. I mean, people, you know, you mentioned some of these older folks who, you know, they're using chat GPT. I agree. I'm amazed at how, how much people are. People who I wouldn't expect are really.
- [30:14]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Do you know why?
- [30:15]
Sam
Do you know, people are hesitant too. So how do you get them to cross that?
- [30:19]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I don't. I have. I could give a shit. I have no interest in convincing people, you know what's gonna make them cross the chasm? Pain. When they're Getting outflanked by human beings. What do you think happened with search, bro? I'm 49 and was at the forefront. Everyone told me search was silly. Why? I have a Yellow Pages. Literally. That's what they said.
- [30:38]
Sam
Yeah.
- [30:38]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm not gonna. I remember one guy telling me that the computer was upstairs. This is a Real Talk, 1999, Gary. I'm not gonna use Yahoo. The computer is upstairs. My Yellow Pages is in my kitchen. It's faster for me to grab the Yellow pages than to go on. And he wasn't wrong. My counterpoint was, do you think it's always gonna be like that? Even then, I wish I was making videos in 99. This would probably be one of my biggest videos. In fact, I actually have a video. I actually have a video that says the phone and the flip cam are gonna be one company.
- [31:23]
Sam
Go there.
- [31:24]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, Right. Which, like. And so there was a reason I bought the iPhone. The day it came out even everybody said it was too expensive and the BlackBerry was good enough anyway. That's a long winded way to say I'm not here to convince. I'm telling everybody when people are outflanking you. When. I'll give you an example. I can do a job in this industry right now because of AI and I'm the least handy person on earth, but I know how to ask enough questions to ChatGPT and Gemini and midjourney. And I can literally take a video from YouTube, post it in ChatGPT and say, okay, I've never fixed anything in my life. This is what I would write. Here's a video of how to fix. How to install H Vac. I've never installed. I've never hung a picture chat. This is what I would write. I've never hung a picture in my home. I'm completely incapable. I have two left hands. I uploaded this H Vac video. Break this down for me with the highest propensity for me not to make a major mistake. Step by step, I can literally get there.
- [32:29]
Sam
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I think so. I mean, what you're saying from hearing you is this is an existential moment. People who or won't adopt will either will fail or they will adopt because they'll experience.
- [32:46]
Gary Vaynerchuk
That's right, Sam. And let's take the other side of the pillow. Okay. So now everybody's like, oh, man, what the. You know, maybe some people got scared. Let me go the other way. What I just explained now becomes the single best training manual for everyone. Here to take a kid off the street and become a good employee instead of what we're all frustrated with. Like damn, gotta take the kid. You just gotta learn from the OG. But the OG's gotta do the job and the OG's not good at training. No, no, no. How about using technology to take a kid from curiosity with the belief that they could do this to building out a training mechanism for him the first week he's in your company using AI?
- [33:29]
Sam
Yeah. In a lot of ways it's no different than it always has been with technology. Technology for hundreds of years, thousands of years has enabled improved productivity and the ability to do more with less. And it's always created a necessity to adopt. And this is just more of that.
- [33:47]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah. There used to not be tools, there.
- [33:49]
Sam
Used to not be jobber.
- [33:50]
Gary Vaynerchuk
That's right. I mean, look, I think finally, and I want everyone to hear this before we talk about 15, 17 years from now if you leave with anything and especially if you saw me in, excuse me, in 21, why are you not making social media content? It will grow your business.
- [34:08]
Sam
Okay, well let's talk about 17 years from now. We've got just a minute or two left. I think it is important to think long term. And as an entrepreneur you often get bogged down in the fires that are burning immediately in front of you or the opportunities as well that you want to chase immediately in front of you. But how can you change your orientation and force yourself to think 10, 15, 17 or 20 years into the future and increase your odds of enduring success over the long time, Especially in this environment that's so unknown and dynamic.
- [34:44]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I want everybody to take one day off next week or next month and think about the next five years, not 17. Just too long of a putt for a lot of people here. But you know, if you have a 17 year old son or daughter that wants to get into the business now they're 22. You know, if you've got an employee who's been your, let's go back to real life, it's your guy and he's 64 and he's been telling you he wants to go to Florida and every year you're like no, no, no, don't go, don't go. I think planning is good, especially when the organizations health really dictates your entire life. And so you know, I think in a five year window is a very good way to think. I don't put anything on paper, I don't make a deck, I don't make a presentation. Some People will. I don't have a vision board but I'm thinking constantly about what's in front of me today. But also two steps forward and then 14 steps forward. Right. I think it's just a good way to be because then nothing catches you off guard again. I think a lot of people here are putting their head in the sand. I like that 64 year old guy story. They just hope, they hope, they hope, they hope and then the thing happens and then there's the unexpected. I mean what if your business was based out of the Palisades in la?
- [36:05]
Sam
Some people, yeah, we have customers there. Absolutely.
- [36:07]
Gary Vaynerchuk
And so, you know, it's just life. You know there's this Russian saying and I know it's a saying cause I say it a lot and a lot of people say no, that's a Persian saying or a Korean saying. Obviously every language has this saying in nationality and culture. The one that I was always told in Russian as a kid translates to man makes plan and God laughs. And so I'm not asking you to think about a five year window because you're going to actually fully execute that plan. I want you to be a human being that is always prepared for something.
- [36:44]
Sam
I think that is the perfect parting thought, Gary. Really, really thought provoking. I hope people sit with that one for a bit. Book a day off to spend the time thinking about the next five years. I agree. I think that's a good including timer.
- [36:59]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I know we're wrapping up, but including do you want to be out of business in five years and not like I'm going to be a trillionaire and I have a boat but like hey, you're tired and back to that 17 year old like if you're dreaming that your kid's gonna take over and you're gonna go to Florida and nothing bougie. Just in a senior retirement, you just wanna rest. You've worked 44 years of your life. Well shouldn't you be getting your kid prepped? Because if your kid comes out of college or whatever at 22 and you're like alright, take it over and they've never really worked in the business or a couple summers a little bit here, you may lose two, three more years. Happened to my uncle and aunt, they wanted their son to take over and it took three more years cause he needed more reps and then my aunt's still involved kind of in the business and so I don't know if my aunt and uncle liked that. Maybe they liked it, that's perfect. But if you don't like it. So I just think planning helps.
- [37:55]
Sam
Yeah, planning is very important. You gotta dedicate the time. Hard for entrepreneurs to do. There's so much going on right in front of you. You have to dedicate the time to thinking further afield. Gary, we're right down to the last second, just like last time. Thank you so much for spending the time with us today. And I hope that we'll see you back in another five years. 20, 30, summit.
- [38:16]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I'll be ready.
- [38:16]
Sam
All right.