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Unfiltered Advice on Social Media and Building a Real Business

The GaryVee Audio Experience

Tue Nov 25 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: The GaryVee Audio Experience

Episode: Unfiltered Advice on Social Media and Building a Real Business

Date: November 25, 2025

Host: Gary Vaynerchuk
Notable Guests/Community Members: Tyler Schmidt, Michelle, Eric, E Beast, audience members

Episode Overview

In this highly interactive episode, Gary Vaynerchuk delivers unfiltered advice and straight talk on common entrepreneurial struggles. Speaking live with community members and answering chat questions, Gary relentlessly emphasizes the foundational importance of social media content, consistency, and self-accountability in both business and life. The episode navigates building a real business, scaling, balancing creativity vs. consistency, team leadership, family dynamics, resilience, and mental frameworks for making big choices. Throughout, Gary’s hallmark candor, humor, and energy drive home practical insights, while audience stories bring authenticity and relatability.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. There Is No "Right" Answer – Action Over Perfection

Decisions Over Hesitation:
- Gary firmly rejects the notion of finding a singular "right" answer in entrepreneurship or life. Instead, he believes everything comes down to making decisions, learning, and adjusting.
- Quote:
  
  "There’s never been a right answer in humanity’s history. There’s only been decisions and then people that are capable of making lemonade out of lemons or other people crying about having diamond rings in their hands. You’re either crying or you're fixing. There is no right answer."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [00:00], repeated [38:15]
The Trap of Seeking Perfection:
- When asked about the need to "perfect" a product before going to market, Gary says perfection is subjective and usually a delay tactic.
- Quote:
  
  "What’s perfection? Who’s the judge of perfection? Perfection is a subjective. Exactly. Right? Yeah, bro, honestly, just jump. There’s no perfect time, there’s no perfection."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [13:37]

2. The Primacy of Social Media Content

Content Is the Game:
- Gary’s core advice for achieving traction in any entrepreneurial venture is an "all-in" commitment to social media creative:
  
  "The reason you’re not getting traction and the reason no one gets traction is they’re not committed enough to social media creative... Everyone’s traction comes from social media content, nowhere else. If you do not win the social media content organic game, you have nothing."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [02:06]
Consistency Beats "Niche" Overthinking:
- He encourages posting diverse content about all aspects of your life/interests, across all platforms. Ignore pressure to niche down if it kills momentum.
- Example:
  
  "You post about country music on the first post and the second one is about your happiness. And the next one's about bamboo sticks... And then it's all nine platforms. LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat..."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [03:51]
Practical Social Media Advice:
- Get scrappy: use green screens, react to trending content, syndicate widely.
- Don't let the struggle for consistency halt your creative process—just do it.

3. Reinvestment vs. Cashing Out in Business Growth

Delayed Gratification Builds Big Businesses:
- Gary illustrates the importance of reinvesting in your business, not extracting money at the expense of growth.
- Quote:
  
  "Whoever holds their breath the longest, wins. I took Vayner from 0 to 100 million in revenue, paying myself the same salary the whole way. The bare minimum I needed... I see people literally making 3 million bucks, top line revenue, and taking all the money out... to buy a Rollie."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [09:29]
First Investment? Hire Help:
- When asked by a young entrepreneur (Tyler, from Egypt) where to invest first, Gary’s answer is simple:
  
  "An employee."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [10:50]

4. Family, Parenting & Emotional Balance

Parenting While Building a Business:
- Gary cautions against over-coddling (never missing a child’s event) as it can create non-adaptable kids, yet encourages finding a personal balance, not guilt.
- Quote:
  
  "Some of you aren’t realizing that you’re creating a framework that is not setting up your child for the realities of real life… The opposite reaction often creates the same vulnerability. You’ve got to find the middle."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [27:00]
Not Imposing on Your Kids:
- With regard to generational business, Gary insists on supporting his children’s dreams, not imposing his own.
- Quote:
  
  "My kids need to live their own life. I’m not here to impose an ideology on my children. I’m here to support theirs."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [32:34]

5. Mindset, Owning Your Situation & Accountability

Radical Responsibility & Self-Awareness:
- Gary repeatedly hammers the need to take total ownership of your outcomes and mindset, advocating self-improvement and action over blame.
- Quote:
  
  "The number one way to get happy is to realize everything in your life is your fault... Everything in your world that's broken is 100% your fault, because you are a human in 2025 that can get out of it."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [24:54]
Empathy & Leadership:
- While Gary champions "soft skills" and empathy at work, he acknowledges his own past mistakes and the dangers of breeding entitlement.
- "Empathy, sympathy, compassion, those are weapons of choice for me… Soft skills matter. I think warmth matters. I think it's an advantage." [31:31]

6. Choosing a Path — Trusting Intuition

On Decision-making:
- A powerful exchange with "E Beast" (26, at a career crossroads)—Gary insists that you must make decisions, trust your gut, and avoid the paralyzing hunt for guarantees.
- Quote:
  
  "Guess. G U E S S. You’ll never know what would have happened if you went in the other direction… This isn’t about making the right choice. This is about living life with the inability to look back."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [36:01]
- Intuition over external advice:
  
  "If you are literally leaning towards something in a decision, that's the Decision. The intuition, the gut is the most underrated thing… Do not choose some guy you admire, like me, to give you an answer over your own intuition."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [38:48]

7. Positivity & Giving Flowers

Make People Feel Good:
- Gary ends on a note of intentional positivity: reach out and give “flowers” (praise, thanks, gratitude) to people in your life to tip the world’s balance towards kindness.
- Quote:
  
  "We’ve become remarkable at slinging insults... What we’ve become really bad at is putting in the effort to make somebody’s day happy. We need more feel good."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk [45:10]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

"There’s never been a right answer in humanity’s history."
— Gary Vaynerchuk [00:00], [38:15]
"It’s not that you’re stretched in or your niche. It’s that until you realize that the social media creative is number one and everything else is two, three, four, you’ll be nowhere."
— Gary Vaynerchuk [02:06]
"Whoever holds their breath the longest, wins."
— Gary Vaynerchuk [09:29]
"The number one way to get happy is, is to realize everything in your life is your fault."
— Gary Vaynerchuk [24:54]
"Empathy, sympathy, compassion, those are weapons of choice for me."
— Gary Vaynerchuk [31:31]
"You pick one and you go. The key is not guessing right. The key is not regretting and looking back."
— Gary Vaynerchuk [37:57]
"If you are literally leaning towards something in a decision, that’s the decision."
— Gary Vaynerchuk [38:48]

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

[02:06] – The Social Media Content Game: why your creative is everything in gaining traction.
[09:29] – Building a Real Business: longevity, reinvestment, and financial discipline.
[13:37] – Overcoming Perfectionism: just ship it, learn as you go.
[24:54] – Happiness, Self-Accountability, and Personal Power.
[27:00] – Parenting Real Talk: adaptability vs. coddling.
[31:31] – Empathy and Entitlement in Team Management.
[32:34] – On Raising Kids Without Imposing Your Dream.
[36:01–38:48] – Decision Guidance: the myth of the "right" answer, following your gut.
[45:10] – Ending on Positivity: the power of giving flowers.

Recap & Tone

Gary is unapologetic, energetic, and direct—blending motivational punchlines, vulnerable personal stories, and tactical step-by-step instructions. Audience questions ground the episode in real entrepreneurial dilemmas, while Gary’s answers circle back to timeless themes: content is king, consistency wins, accountability frees, action trumps perfection, and positivity matters.

If you’re grappling with clarity, momentum, or mindset in business or life, this episode is GaryVee archetype—raw, useful, and always challenging listeners to do more and blame less.

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Transcript

Gary Vaynerchuk (0:00)

There's never been a right answer in humanity's history. How about that? There's never been a right answer in humanity's history. There's only been decisions and then people that are capable of making lemonade out of lemons or other people crying about having diamond rings in their hands. You're either crying or you're fixing. There is no right answer. This is the GaryVee audio experience. Before you go to the podcast, I've got a big announcement. I know several years ago a lot of you bought 12 books of 12 and a half to get the NFT, the book games NFT. I also know that a lot of people have dropped off on their journey with Veefriends, which is a massive mistake because what we're doing on Burn island and what we're doing on base with book games is remarkable. So you need to go to vfriends.comoldbooks with an S. You will go to that landing page and we will help you explain if you are trying to figure out where your NFTs are, how to bring them over to the website and how to start activating them so that you can start using them for all the incredible exchanges and draws and raffles and experiences that we're doing for people that actually own the book games. So please go to veefriends.com oldbooks where you can start your journey on reactivating your book games. Journey. Tyler Schmidt is in the building. We are here to answer your questions. Some of you are gonna come on scre of you. We're going to take right from the chat. So if you've got a question, please ask it. Michelle, how are you?

Michelle (1:31)

I'm good, Jay, how are you doing?

Gary Vaynerchuk (1:33)

I'm well.

Michelle (1:33)

Alright, Perfect. So you always talk about and not or and I truly leaned into that. So I'm creating a community called Chase youe Happy about helping people live a happier, healthier life. I've also leaned into the fact that I love country music, so I go to a lot of events, create content around that. I'm also trying to do a podcast, write a book, do coaching. I'm in the stand store challenge, but I'm not gaining traction on any one thing because I'm struggling to be consistent. So then I tried to pick one thing and go all in and I just can't.

Gary Vaynerchuk (2:06)

So, Michelle, here's a couple things. I know you really well and I know a lot of people are struggling with this. The reason you're not getting traction and the reason no one gets traction is they're not committed enough to social media creative. I don't think people have figured out this secret and this is gonna make so much sense to you, Michelle, because obviously we've been around each other for a long time now. You've been in this community and it's social media content. Everyone's traction comes from social media content, nowhere else. If you do not win the social media content organic game, you have nothing. Unless you are put on a reality show and you're on Love Island. And now people know who you are, right? Nothing happens without attention. It's not that you're stretched in or you're niche. It's that until you realize that the social media creative is number one and everything else is two, three, four, you'll be nowhere. So for example, you should be all day long doing green screens over country music songs or photos of albums or cover art from Spotify. Like, the content is the punchline. Everyone. This is why you know me, I'm very thoughtful. I play loose and like silly, but I'm fucking like, I'm pretty thoughtful about what I do. Why have I devoted a decade to get all of you good at social media content? Because that is the starting point for everything in the Stan Challenge. As you know, most of what I'm doing in those one on one calls is teaching you deep detail about the content. Your traction will only come from the content. You've got to get better at the content. You know, the URLs to the deck, you know all that stuff. Like you just got to go crazy on the content.

Gary Vaynerchuk (3:51)

Yes, I know you're always yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You post about country music on the first post and the second one is about your happiness. And the next one's about bamboo sticks. And the next one chase your happiness. And the next one is a country music. And the next one is about be friends. And the next one is about this basketball game. And the next one chase your happiness. And the next one chase your happiness. And the next one's country. And the next one's country. And the next one's chase your happiness. And the next one's Halloween. Happy Halloween. And next one chase your happiness. And the next one's country. And the next post is country. And the next post is country. And the next post is country music. And then it's happiness. And then it's happiness. And then it's all nine platforms. LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat. And then it's happy on Instagram and then it's country music on LinkedIn. And on LinkedIn it's happy. Like you understand? Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. I love you. Let's move on. I'm telling you the thing. I love you so hard. Thank you. Stay well. Listen to me everybody. This is real life out here. Like this is consistency, this is putting in the reps. Like my back is feeling so much better because I am literally I stretched for 45 minutes on my outer left glute. Literally. Do you understand what's going on with me? You guys know because sometimes my back goes out in basketball. I think I literally after 12 and a half years in the gym, full, real trainers, full like Dr. Matt. Big shout out to you. Like real chiropractor. Like fix my butt. Jordan Syed forever. I will love you. Jordan. You're in Dallas right now. Fix my Ql changed my life. Diagnosed it in one workout. I self diagnosed Mike Vacanti. If you're watching, you know what happened a couple days ago I was in the gym for 45 minutes. Today you've got to work. Everything is work. Everybody. This is work. It's all work. Loan me 50k. Someone said the opposite of work. That's a bit shit. I'm telling you. All the work is the game. The game is work. We have to work. Alright, let's keep answering people's questions. But it's consistency and what I did for Michelle and she's awesome. Her energy is awesome, her things. Everybody keeps hearing me say it, but then they don't do it. I've said and I've said a million times that you should post everything on your post. I've also said be on more platforms but it's hard. Like Mike also said to me, don't eat a lot of carbs yesterday. What did I do? I went to Bubby's brunch with my daughter. What happened? She ordered the pancake thing. It looked crazy. I was locked into my eggs doing my thing. She didn't finish. I was like, let me just take a look. And I ate a pancake. What do you want? I lost. And guess what? My scale showed it today. My scale showed it today. I've been battling for 12 years. I get all of you with followers and money. Mine's called health and wellness for some of you, you just cook. How many people here cook on health and wellness Say cook. You just cook. It comes easy. You wake up, rain or shine in the gym. Zach, you're Good like that, right? No. Every day's a battle though, okay? It's never easy. But look at all these people that cook. They went that way. You were built. Tim Tebow looked like he cooks, bro. My God, what a unit.

Gary Vaynerchuk (10:59)

Thank you, brother. I wish you well. I'm proud of you, bro. Love all the entrepreneurs in Egypt. I meet a bunch of them along the way. I love that country. You're welcome, brother. Couple things I saw in the chat while we're going. Someone said, damn, when did Gary turn a thousand? I think three years ago. My facial hair started going from dark to, like, gray. I've always had the bags and like, I'm not really. Yeah, just like. I think the answer to that person's question was probably three years ago. I think that's when, like, once the gray kicks in, you're like. Once it goes on your face like that, like, that really makes us all think, like, oh, all of a sudden, I think that's when I turned a thousand, Ty. I feel like three years ago. By the way, like, getting older is fun. Plus, I'm super pumped in 11 days, I guess I get to say I'm 50. And that's like, I already been flirting with it. Like a couple, like, yo, how old are you? I'm like, 50. They're like, you look great. Nobody said that yesterday when I was 49. 50's good, y'. All. 50's good. When you get to say 50, you're like, yo. And like, listen, I've been in unk status in my head. Since I was 16. When people are like, oh Gary, you're unk now. Like, you know, some people try to use that as bad. I'm like, bro, I've been unk since fucking 89. I'm fucking immigrant, first born. Fucking the emotional and financial epicenter of my entire universe. For the last 30 years I've been unk and I never had it twisted. When all of you were like following me 10 years ago and I was 14 year old, 16, I was unk then. I actually can't wait to be like Pappy. Pappy V is gonna be my greatest error. When I'm 90 and I'm coming out and I'm like you, I'm working harder than you. And I'm 90 Granny V. But I'm Pappy V. When I'm Pappy v and I'm 90, up in this all shrivel. When I'm like shriveled and. And even more like up. And I'm gonna be like you. I'm 90 and I've been made billions. And you're still crying. So I'm ready for Pappy bro. Pappy V is gonna be a fucking gangster. So when did I turn a thousand to that person trying to troll? Three years ago. Alright, let's keep going. Questions?

Gary Vaynerchuk (22:33)

Divergent. Yep. No, no. Red solve. A lot of people are new, like Jared or like. There's a lot of people. Like, this is the coolest part. This is the best part of TikTok. This is why I love going live here. So many people are new to me. Everybody. I'm Gary Vaynerchuk. I'm an entrepreneur. I love to talk about my. I love to go macro micro. I'm a macro micro guy. Micro. I like to talk about, like, here's what you do online shopping. Here's how you flip stuff. Here's how you build your social media profile up. I love the actions, but then macro, like, if you don't love yourself, you're dead. Very mindset stuff. So I'm very, like, self esteem, insecurities, mindset, accountability. AO I'm very a o. I'm very big on accountability and optimism. AO a O. Accountability and optimism will get you free. We're in control. We're in control. You're in control. Stop letting fear take you. So I'm very big on macro mindset, which is you're 100% in control. You don't like your job, quit. Okay? I can't quit. I have bills. No shit, dick. I mean, quit after you go apply to a bunch of jobs and find a new one. Like, everything good is hard. I don't Know this would have hurt everybody. We got soft like pillows. Well, I sleep on a hard pillow, but soft. We got soft. I do like soft ice cream over hard ice cream. Who's a soft. Who's soft? Ice cream. Who's hard ice cream? Everybody reply, soft ice cream. Hard ice cream. I'm soft. Yeah, like, just soft. It could be melted. I like soft. I don't like when it's hard and cold. Like, I like it when it's soft. Who's soft? Who's hard? I want to know who's soft? Who's hard? There we go. Anyway, I like my ice cream soft. I hate my humans soft. A bunch of just soft. Just blaming Everybody but yourself. 100. Let me promise you, you want to be happy. Who wants to get. Who wants to be happy? Tell me that I want to be happy in a chat. Who wants to be happy? Who wants to get this anxiety, this sadness, this darkness out of their head? Who wants to be happy? I just need to know who wants to be happy? Tell me if you want to be happy. All right, Casper. I got you. Here we go, Casper. The number one way to get happy is, is to realize everything in your life is your fault. And it's counterintuitive because it's like, no, Gary. Then I'm like, I didn't say you suck. Everything in your world that's broken is 100% your fault. Because you are a human in 2025 that can get out of it. You can break up with your spouse or your girlfriend, boyfriend. You can quit your job. You can leave your city. You can literally leave your country. You can stop watching CNN and FOX and following all these fuckers that are deploying fear. You can do anything. And the world right now is telling you that you can't. And you suck. And I got you both the left and the right. Everybody, like, you want your freedom? You've got it. You've got your freedom. Your freedom and your jail sits in here. Unless you're watching from North Korea. Unless you were watching from North Korea right now. I don't care if you got one penny.

Gary Vaynerchuk (26:52)

By not judging yourself day to day and by trying your best. Sometimes you miss the recital, my friends. Let me throw you a curve ball actually watch this. How many have a kid under 12 and you've never missed a baseball game or a recital? You've never missed a sports game or a recital. You have a kid under 12 and you the parent have never missed one. Put 12. Put the number 12 in the chat if you're that person. I have something to say to you. Everybody who's never missed a recital or a game, put 12. Alright, ready? We got a lot. This is gonna be a very weird moment. You know where I'm going. I need you to miss the next one. This is real now. I know this one's gonna hurt and I love the notes like first of all let me say this. Everybody should parent the way they want to parent. But let me tell you what's happening on the flip side to the D DMs I'm getting from 24 year olds. Mommy and daddy never missed a recital. They always fucking pay for my uber. The over coddling kids learning that there's sometimes things that happen. We've made non adaptable children. Some of you. Thank you man. The grandpa sweater is the beast. I love grandpa sweaters. Some of you aren't realizing that you're creating a framework that is not setting up your child for the realities of real life. And so I would never tell you to miss it. Especially because I don't want your DM next week saying alright, thanks Gary. My fucking little Ricky hates me now and it's been the worst week of my life. So you do you, you do you and I know a lot of you like hustle herbs said my dad missed everything. I refuse not to. You're right. But I don't know if you ever heard this. The opposite reaction often creates the same vulnerability. You've got to find the middle. You know less of this and more of this. The opposite polar reaction to the other direction creates. Thank you Twitch asmr. Huh? We balance. Little Ricky needs to know sometimes shit happens makes them adaptable makes them resilient. Please be careful, you know, Please be careful. That being said, do you like. I admire and respect the living shit out of going to everything. Just have a funny. And by the way, you may want to go to everything and you might offset balance in a different way. Because what going to everything leads to, from what I've seen from the kids, is going to everything. Paying for everything, making excuses for everything. How many people here have a child that is over 25 and you're still giving them money in a real way, paying for their house, their rent, their Uber, their equinox? Put the number 25 in here. This is a good time to be vulnerable. We're gonna help people. Put 25 in the chat if you're a parent of 25 or older. Put the number 25 in the chat if you are. Look at this. This is real. People being vulnerable. This is real. I don't think people, you know, when I say things, I think sometimes people think I'm lying. I don't think people realize, you know, when I Talk about like 30 year olds being on a payroll, they're like, yeah, get the fuck out of here. Because they don't live in a situation like that. Look at all these 25s. Look at this. Only when they truly need it, but only truly needing it. What's that really about? Like, you mean like a vacation whenever, like, like they could sell their home and get a lesser home. Like there's no truly needed. That didn't exist back in the day. If parents gave money back in the day, they lent it to you. And you better fucking pay every month. These people that are 20 people that put 25 in a chat that know what I'm talking about and they're stuck, people with 25 year olds that they continue to give money to. Tell me how it's going for them. And you put 25 colon and explain. Yeah, battling cancer. First of all, brother Benjamin, sending all my love. That's obviously different. I'm not talking about that. Of course not, brother Benjamin. That's a different game altogether. I want the people that are 25 and older. Like tell them, tell these parents who are 11, 12, 13 where this ends up, you know, my brother's 26, still accepting money, Alex, and like 22, I'm cook. Like it's, you know, you know, it's just fucking hard. E Beast. Love you Anyway, Gary, how much of.