Unfiltered Advice on Social Media and Building a Real Business

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

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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.

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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]

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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]

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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.

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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.

Transcript

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm well.

[Michelle]

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]

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.

[Michelle]

So I can't let go of this Chase youe Happy concept either. So do I try to march the two.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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.

[Eric]

Forearms.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

What a unit unit. But I bet it's still a battle every day for him. Maybe, maybe not. Listen, how many people listen? I battle every day. I'm not saying you go to the gym every day and do the right things and you battle. I mean it comes natural to you. It comes na. Like Mona, my wife. It comes natural. You should see the joy on her face when she's cooking some fucking parsnip and she looks at that parsnip like it's fucking surf and turf with mashed potatoes and cupcakes. You see it, right? It comes natural to her. Like visuals. What's up brother? Freestyle, yo. So I'm 20, where are you from?

[Tyler]

I live in Egypt. I'm from Egypt.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes, my guy. Beautiful.

[Eric]

Yes sir.

[Tyler]

Yes Sir. So I'm 20 and I've been learning AI automations and visuals for three months now. Yeah, it's the first time I ever started learning anything in my life.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

There you go.

[Tyler]

Yeah, first time I went, I went like full on learning. I didn't think about how hard is it going to be, how am I going to get clients, where am I going to learn it? I just, I was interested in something. I saw what software people used to do this stuff and then I started to network. I did these three things and now I have two of the biggest jewelry brands here in Egypt doing some AI visuals for. I started posting on my TikTok. One of my videos got 10k views and it's still growing. The other one got like 7k views and I don't know, everything is growing now. Clients getting clients and everything is going fine. But how? One of the biggest problem with people is the scale. So like if I don't think about scaling in the next five years, I probably just would stay stuck at some point. So I have to put a very strong foundation team that I scale the next day.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'll give you the answer by not trying to take the money to buy stuff you don't need and putting the money back in the business and finding good people and. And when you don't find a good person on your team, learning how to fire and all those things.

[Tyler]

That's so true. I heard someone says earlier, saying earlier that whatever money you make from your business isn't your money, it's the business's money.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's true. Who? My brother, 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. From 0 to 100 million in revenue, brother.

[E Beast]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, meanwhile, I see people. I see people literally making 3 million bucks, top line revenue, and taking all the money out of the business as quickly as possible to buy a Rollie. Yeah. The answer, my friend, the answer is put the energy, put the money into the business. That money goes to people. You build teams. You build teams and you gotta. And you're gonna learn at a young age how to hire and fire. One of the greatest lessons one needs to learn as an entrepreneur. Yeah, you're a kid, bro.

[Tyler]

Yeah, I mean, I think I made it wrong so far. The currencies and everything, they got me like 5k so far.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's incredible, bro. I'm proud of you, man. It's incredible. And. And notice what it started with. You actually liked it. You actually liked it. That's why this is all happening. You actually liked it.

[E Beast]

What do you think?

[Tyler]

Should be my first investment?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

An employee.

[Tyler]

Oh, okay.

[E Beast]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Someone with me.

[E Beast]

Yeah, sure.

[Tyler]

Well, that's amazing.

[E Beast]

Your worst.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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?

[Eric]

My name's Eric.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Eric.

[Eric]

I've been following you for a little bit. I started my own little thing like you and me friends actually. And the one we started collecting for his two one year old twin daughters.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So humble, my guy. Thank you so much for supporting it.

[Eric]

My own tcg like B friends like you are.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I love that, brother.

[Eric]

I'm using all AI. It's all AI art and it's all AI generated lore. I've got everything in place for where I need to be. It's just I'm struggling between.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Thank you. Lovely.

[Eric]

How much do I perfect it or do I go straight into market, Bro, what's perfect?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

What's per brother? Which Eric, he said, right?

[Fellow Community Member]

Yep.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Eric. Eric. Yes, sir. What's perfection? Who's the judge of perfection? Perfection is a subjective. Exactly. Right? Yeah, bro, honestly, like just jump. It's all the same thing. There's no perfect time, there's no perfection. Right. Somebody said I looked like a thousand. Somebody else in the chat said I'm gorgeous. Two different opinions. You like that? Thank you, brother. But I mean I think it's that game, right bro? Like either, you know, there is no perfection, there's no waiting. You know what I mean?

[Eric]

Well, how did you decide to go with Tops Chrome on Doing your print like, I'm just a nobody starting. How do I decide on a manufacturer to go with to reduce the quality?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I. You, you know, Topps, Chrome, Topps, you don't get to pick tops. You don't call tops and be like, yo, what's up? I'm picking you. Topps picks you. So I picked that. They picked me. How did I do that? I worked for 30 years, every day for 100 hours a week to build up a community, a foundation, a business, an ecosystem that then allowed me to really work my face off in 2021 during COVID to build a universe. And then I went with a startup called Zero Cool because I had a relationship with Josh Luber, who was the StockX founder. I gave him a lot of value, friendship. We knew each other that created that small thing. And then we worked our balls off to build a community. Storytelling, content, really worked hard to create a universe where we did well at the National Sports Card Convention, which caught the attention of Topps. This is all building. You're early right now, my guy.

[Fellow Community Member]

But. But what you've talked about a lot. It sounds like he has to make a decision.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

He's.

[Fellow Community Member]

He's sitting. Should I go A or B? And the longer you don't decide on A or B. Yeah, he just.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, for him. Yes. First, I wanted to get Eric to understand he's early in his journey.

[Fellow Community Member]

Yep.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

When people are like, well, Gary, you're so. No, no. I'm like, gary, I'm not so this is Gary, 14 years old at the flea market. This is Gary 15 years old in the liquor store. This is Gary. Like, please don't say Gary, you're so. Well, you. Well, you nothing dick. I fucking worked for 35 straight years. So you're early. So you got to put in work. Here's what I want. Here's what I want for you. I'll give you the whole blueprint. First, you got to start putting out the art and. And the characters on social media. On social media. You know what I mean?

[Eric]

I just started doing that.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Beautiful love. Now, you got to do that for years. But now we started right next. As far as who you print them with, you go to. You go to these conventions. You go to Comic con. You use ChatGPT to find out cardboard or sticker printers. You take meetings, you make. You, you, you guess. Like, my whole life is guessing until you know. I just need everybody to understand this. There is no knowing you guess until you know right. How'd you get good at swimming? I promise you I wish all of you could watch the video of your first of xyz. Your first swimming, your first bike ride, your first. Like, I don't even know how they let these kids drive. When I think about how I. What I was doing. And by the way, remember when you first started driving double hands? You're scared shitless. And still. I was. You were terrible. You were. I don't know how we let these kids on the street, bro. Thank God Uber's here. Like, man, I was like. I didn't know. I was, like, hitting the gas instead of the brake. I'm on the road.

[Fellow Community Member]

Driving in the snow for the first time is a whole different.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I hit my car the first day.

[Eric]

One thing about your book, crushing it. I just started that. And I do got to say, the one thing that I really enjoyed was how you talked about bringing your family, like my daughters into what I do and enjoying the AI process.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, bro, that's. That's the best. That's the best, brother, that. I'm so happy for you. Like, honestly, if you don't have a commercial success over these next 10 years, but the fact that twin daughters are going to get 10 years of daddy building something with them, that's going to be everything. One of the worst financial things that ever happened to me was working for my dad from 14 to 34. One of the worst things, by the way. One of the worst. By the way. The worst thing that has happened to me financially in my Life was spending 22 to 34 building a business for my dad, getting paid nothing and giving up my social Life and working 100 hours a week. Financial. The single. The single. The single best thing I did in my life was work for my dad. The worst thing I did for myself financially was work for my dad. The best. My dad has had a tough year. He's got limes, he's struggling. And of course, I'm a human being. And there's been times where I'm like, fuck, is he gonna go earlier than I wanted? And where do I go? Thank you, God, for making the decision I knew that I was making at 22.

[Eric]

I agree. I'd rather have a dad than a.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Boss in my eyes, of course, but, like, dads that are bosses are selfish. A lot of times my dad did me no favors. Like, he's like. Like, I'm just like, real talk. Like, let's, let's. We're here.

[Eric]

Like, like, I do got a great wine. Did do me favors. He is a great guy. We have a good family business. It's just the way that set up is struggling. And I don't want to end up where my grandfather told him, good luck. I don't want my dad to tell me, good luck.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah. And I wish. I wish that was my story. Mine was kind of. Thank you for doing it for me. I'm. I run wine library now, right now, this second.

[Eric]

My grandfather was.

[E Beast]

To my dad.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I run it now. Just so everybody knows. I talk to Brandon every day. Every decision runs through me. Yeah. For him, you know, and for me. But, like, I want everyone to see. See this. I want everybody to understand this. Financial is not the decision. What's in your heart and soul is the decision. And by the way, a lot of people struggle what they do for their parents, not do their parents. There's three things when you're a parent. There's your parents, there's you, and there's your kids. And, like, all of us have different percentages of what we're putting our energy against, and there is no right. And it's different for everyone. My dad should kiss my mom in the face right now. I think my dad gets a lot of benefits of what my mom did for me, and he's like the residual beneficiary. There's all sorts of things, man. You know what I mean? There's all sorts of things. Anyway, what I'm saying, brother, long winded, because I'm obviously trying to give as much value in these lives as possible. Hope I'm touching on some themes that help some people. But for you, bro, your win is that you're building this with your daughters. Congrats. As far as perfection, which vendors you're gonna learn. You're gonna learn along the way. When I started building veefriends, I was a seasoned, highly successful entrepreneur. You know what I mean?

[Eric]

Well, then I want to. What do you think about me going live and helping the community?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes. Yes. You, by the way, you, brother. Brother, you know the answers to these questions. You know I'm gonna say yes. You're regurgitating the stuff I'm spitting for the last six months. Yeah.

[Eric]

In my head, I keep saying yes. It's like I need gratification or verification.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, we all. We all do this. We all, like, circle within ourselves, talking about what we're gonna do, looking for outside validation. Life is only about anything that you achieve in your life is about doing anything that is remarkable is hard. Doing hard, doing hard. It's hard. And you have to do. Nothing else happens in our heads, in our dreams, and Even worse. I love in our head, in our dreams. Optimism, visualization. There's some good versions. Let me now attack the people that are doing the bad versions. Blaming everybody but themselves of why they haven't accomplished anything. Yeah, this is really live. Mike, you. That's it, man. There's only doing and it's all hard. Nothing's easy. Nothing's easy. It's all just a. Like M9 says. It's just a banter. Thank you, brother. Thank you for being such a big part of this community. I love seeing you in here all the time. And thank you for supporting be friends. I really. I really do think I'm. I really think I'm doing it.

[Eric]

Yes, you are. Like I said, you're inspiring me to do.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm proud of you, bro. Now jump. Now get off the inspiration and get into the action.

[Eric]

Yes, sir.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Actually, who here's watching for the last 10 minutes and has no idea who I am? This is a fun one. This is my favorite part about TikTok Live, who's been watching for 10 minutes and has no idea who I am. Say that's me in all caps. Say, that's me. That's me.

[Fellow Community Member]

Divergent soul.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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.

[Fellow Community Member]

They got that vpn.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

VPN super free. Somebody said, freedom is a scam. It's the reverse, my guy. You started to believe the people that are trapping you. Freedom is the only truth because it's here. If you don't think there's freedom in America, go to Peru, bitch. Peru. Next question. Let's go. What do we got here? Ask your questions if you want your question answered. Put the question marks in here. Make sure you follow me. Who wants to hang out here with me all the time? That's what I want to know. Who wants to make this a regular? Who wants to really chop up on TikTok often? I love you back TJ to co toka who's got questions? Let's go. Questions. G question for you. So we talked about family a little bit earlier. How do you prioritize family while running.

[E Beast]

A business of vayner scale?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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.

[Fellow Community Member]

An empath do you need to be? How do you balance it in business?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, empathy, sympathy, compassion, those are weapons of Choice for me. You know, I would say that, you know, listen, soft skills matter. I think. I think warmth matters. I think it's an advantage. But like anything I've had times when running Vayner, when running team Gary, Sid will tell you, pushing him more to like be like, no, we gotta fire this person. Like, I've created entitlement. One of the reasons I talk about entitlement is I've created corporate entitlement often because I know what it is. I come from a place of being parented one way and making missteps in my life.

[Fellow Community Member]

With the last question that was on screen, he was talking about building it with his daughters.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Fellow Community Member]

And then also talked about how he saw his dad build it and then his dad, he doesn't want to do the same thing.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah.

[Fellow Community Member]

How do you balance going all in on an IDEA that's like 10 years from now, like when the daughters grow up and are into the business as well, versus like them growing up and feeling the same way.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm like, I don't want to do this.

[Fellow Community Member]

How do you balance the emotional by.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Knowing you're not in control. My ideology for what my kids do is my own business. 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. That's the biggest fucked up thing that parents do. They impose what they parents fucked up for hundreds of years on this. You need to be a doctor. The fuck are you talking about? I'm not here to impose my dreams on what I want my children to be. I'm here to enhance theirs without creating entitlement. It. Let's get E Beast. What, you like that? Yeah. That's real. Like me. Like, I do not want my children to be entrepreneurs like me. I'd be thrilled if they're interested, but I'd equally be thrilled if they want to do other shit. As long as they like their shit as much as I like mine, that's what I want from them. As long as they have detachment from their professional success like I do, thus not rendering anybody to weaponize it. It.

[Fellow Community Member]

Would you support their fandom of the Miami Dolphins?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. E. Beast. Get up here. Sports is where I play. Weird.

[E Beast]

Wow.

[Fellow Community Member]

He's 10x everyone else.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah. E came in here and beasted my guy. Bro, you just came in here and blew everyone out the water. 68,000 points in. You know, iconic gaming's at 6,000. You just like 10x. You were like, fuck it.

[E Beast]

Listen, I know the Value of coffee. I appreciate it, man.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Thank you, brother.

[E Beast]

A long time and just a little bit about myself real quick. I'm 26 years old. I lost my father when I was 16 to cancer. I was born into a wealth, you feel me? So people look at me and they're like, oh, you have everything. But don't you have your father? Right. I just got, I have a 15 year old son. Okay. I'm a victim of abuse from my ex wife, physically and verbally. Not to put that out like that, but unfortunately I went through a lot. I'm Jewish, so you're Jewish too. You know, there's a lot of hate out there, but either way, I'm not trying to play the victim card because we're in charge of ourselves and in control of ourselves. There's no one who's a victim here. What I am trying to say is just give you a background on myself. Yeah, I have a question, Gary. My question is, like I said, I'm 26. When you're in your 20s, you have multiple directions you could pursue that all have potential. What is the smartest framework to decide which path will give the best long term leverage instead of wasting and bouncing around between, between options and, and just to add some context to that, you know, I applied to the army. I'm in search for a meeting in my life personally. That's where I'm at. You know, I'm an EMT of four years. I did two years in the Middle east in Israel as a volunteer emt, and now I'm a, I'm in the army. I've got an 84 in my ASVAB. They want me in intelligence units. But I also have the potential to go to the, to the police academy. So I guess my question is, is that I'm not really figured out yet. I'm 26 and people feel like they need to have everything figured out. You're gonna say I'm a baby. I've heard your before, you know, like you're awesome and I respect you. So like, what is the guidance that you could give me in my, in my current state?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Guess.

[E Beast]

What do you mean guess?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Guess. G U E S S. Okay, what does that mean? That means. That means you'll never know. If you decide to go army versus police academy versus a third thing altogether that hits you tomorrow, you'll never know what would have happened if you went in the other direction. And so you guess which one you want to do. Throw a dart, flip a coin, and then live with the realities of that. And don't look backwards. This isn't about making the right choice. This is about living life with the inability to look back, right? Because let me give you, let me play you a story, my brother. You're 26. You decide to go to the police academy, right? And that was the best for what you were looking for. That gave you the best community, the best purpose the all this. But while you were there on a day off, ironically, not on a day that you did, but on a day off you weren't looking the right way and you took a step and a bus hits you and you're out at 40, right? Versus you go to the army, it's not as good. It's a C to the A that the police academy would have been. But you don't have that random day off because you're in fucking Afghanistan or somewhere else at this point. And you live a happy life to 94 years old and have great grandchildren. And it's a good life. Maybe not as joyous for purpose in the short term, by the way. You might decide that more purpose for 14 years and go out at 40 by getting hit by a bus is better for you. That's fine too. What I'm telling you, bro, is that there is. Nobody knows the answer to this shit. You pick one and you go. The key is not guessing, right? The key is not regretting and looking back. Back, right?

[E Beast]

So how do I make sure I don't regret that?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By realizing it's a fucked up energy and it's wrong and working on your mentality and your perspective, not on some fucking framework of trying to figure out what the right thing is. Right? Now.

[E Beast]

You'Re saying there's no right answer.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

There's never been a right answer in humanity's history. How about that? There's a bar. 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.

[E Beast]

I'm leaning towards police academy, to be honest.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The end. Stop there. Stop there. That's your answer. I'll pick it for you. You can blame me if you don't like it. You're going to the police academy. Let's clap it up for this man on the police academy. And I want everybody who's watching to understand what happened. If you are literally, 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. To give you an answer over your own intuition. Your intuition and gut is right. And you're using your logical brain and fear to talk you out of the right answer. Because the right answer can only be when it's coming from your primary place, which is the center of your universe. Here, the brain's got everyone fucked up. Science class in the 70s and 80s got you fucked up. Here's the real answer. The answer sits here. Y' all just fucking jump. Thank you, my guy. I wish you well. Go ahead.

[E Beast]

So I recently started going live on TikTok myself. I got 15k followers in a month's time, right? And my. And what I want to do is kind of string, you know, whether it was going to the army, but I guess I'm going to the police academy, because that's my gut feeling, and I will take that and I'll go that route, and I want to stream my experience there. So how do I do that in the best possible way, number one. Number two, I do want to ask you. Right? Okay. So is there one question you wish people would stop asking you? And what is the question people should be asking instead?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Is there one? Is there. Is there one question? What?

[E Beast]

Is there one question you wish people would stop asking you? And is there one question that people. That you wish people would ask instead?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes. So couple things here. There's a lot there. First of all, chat. I love all of you. Like, this is super fun. Like Lindsay at Human, as usual. Like all of you. Like, we're gonna be chopping here a lot. The question I wish people stopped asking me is the question. They know what my answer is going to be. They just need the validation or the affirmation. For me, the question I wish people would ask me is what I want them to ask themselves, which is why. Why have they not been able to figure out what's really happening here, which is foundational. Like, why do they value the outside so much? Why do they continue to point fingers? Why do they spew negativity? Because they'll figure out it's because they're hurting. And once they get to the hurting, they can start figuring out how to unhurt themselves, how to give themselves more grace, how to give themselves more patience. And now I have one question for you. Where are you going to be a cop? In what area?

[E Beast]

So I. I was born and raised in Jersey. I just moved a month ago to Miami.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Great. So, so great. So Bro, you got to make me a promise. When you pull me over in Miami, I got to get that pass. You got to be like, yo, Gary, Vee, it's gonna. I gotta get that pass, bro. I don't care if the cam's on. You gotta be like, yo, bro, even.

[E Beast]

If we didn't have this interaction, I know you. You don't know me. I would have gave you that passage.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

My guy. I am crushing it with cops pulling me over that day. All right, brother, stay well. Take care. Sky's been trying to tell me that they've had 43 jobs in 43 years. Sounds like some crazy shit going on over there. By the way, if you get fired five times in a short period of time, like, if you get. I just. Everyone hears, if you've been fired five times within four years, it's your fault. I just need everybody to hear that. Like, you can play the job's fault and your boss's fault the first time for damn sure. Second time, I'm even willing to go there because I don't fucking trust these jobs and managers out there. And it's not even baseball, Tyler. I'm willing to give you three strikes and you're still not out. But, motherfuckers, if you in here and you've been fired five times in a row, you are the problem. It's you. You're the problem. All right. Arisha, how are you? Hi. Okay. Okay, baby. Okay, let's get this photo. Got to get the photo. Otherwise, it never happened.

[Guest from Detroit]

Hi, how are you?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I am well, darling. Where are you from?

[Guest from Detroit]

I am from Detroit, Michigan.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Let's go. Detroit. Tough, tough loss yesterday. Zach, what happened to your Lions? I. I want them to fire everybody. Oh, my God. That was a tough, tough loss. All right, baby, go ahead. What's your question?

[Guest from Detroit]

I already know what I do. This app has been amazing. I thank you. I just started seeing you on other apps, but then I came here and.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm like, oh, my God.

[Guest from Detroit]

And so I just started following you, and I came across a lot of these people saying, oh, don't do this.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Don't do this in this room.

[Guest from Detroit]

And I came across a few rooms that was showing you how to be visible. And I know what my life's going to be is learn how to be visible in these rooms because you have over not look how big is your following is crazy. And be visible.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Engage.

[Guest from Detroit]

Share the lives. Don't ask for permission. Like walking your purpose. And I already know what I want to do in my life. I just. I'm that person who is. Instead of always saying, okay, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready.

[E Beast]

Be available. Start now.

[Guest from Detroit]

Some of the rooms that I follow. Monster Nora, you miss Eve. It's just shout outs.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By the way, I love that you're giving flowers. I love when people give each other flowers. I wish the world, by the way, as we bounce out of here with this amazing woman on, let her actions inspire all of us. When we hang up right now, there's a thousand of you that can do this. This is a ton of positivity. When we hang up right now, text somebody that you have not talked to recently and give them flowers for being a friend or a value in the past. Literally, when we all hang up right now, text somebody in your life and just say, I love you. Thank you. I miss you. Thank you for being my best friend during this time. Thank you for, like, you know, you were a great captain on our baseball team. Like, thank you for babysitting me when I was a kid. Somebody you haven't talked to in a long time. Cause we need to give way more flowers out here. We become remarkable at slinging insults. We become remarkable at tearing people down. People out here running their mouth on social media 24 7, hurting other people. What we've become really bad at is putting in the effort to make somebody's day happy. You just gave flowers. I love giving flowers. I actually got something coming up on that and I love you for that. And I need everybody to go deep in their contacts. I don't mean your brother who you spoke to yesterday. I don't mean mom. I mean, you need to go deep in the bag. Be like, oh, shit, Johnny, who I used to play pick up off pick up ball with in high school. Text Johnny. Be like, yo, Johnny, you fucking rebounded like a beast in those pickup games in 98. Do you know what that's gonna do for John? Johnny's having a bad day right now, and his old friend that played pick up ball with him just said he was a great rebounder. That's just gonna feel good. We need to make people feel good. We need more feel good like Elvis, baby. You know? We need to feel good.

[E Beast]

So good.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Right?

[Guest from Detroit]

Thank you so much. Yes, big time. I'll serve it first. I believe in serving the people. So serve others before, you know, because if you serve others, everything is gonna come back to you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Every day, every time. I have $420 in the bank account here on TikTok. 420 sounds like the exact time to get off and get lazy. I'm just kidding. All right, everybody. Love you. Thank you so much.