#AskGaryVee Episode 207: Tucker Max, Book Publishing & Creative Storytelling

what’s been the biggest key to your
creative process and ability to tell stories that connect people yeah that’s a great question so on the
way I always frame it and i think it’s i started this way by accident and I just
stayed this way is i started writing because I was trying to make nine people
life right you know like the saying that if you if
you want to change the world that you’ve got a chain or 11 * believe in yourself
or one person years I think the same thing is true for
storytelling if you can’t make a small group of people laugh or react in
whatever way you again you can’t get a big group to do it right
and so I every time I write I always think consciously in my head who is my audience why do they care
super interesting i said you know you guys have heard Sally Arkansas his world
would be like Rick polo like I imagine these people that I think
there’s way more than nine of them you’re nine bodies represent twenty-two
percent of dudes in America and that’s why it’s a big audience and that’s why I
think about here right even the way I interviewed the first time 15 minutes you’re like
okay I know who’s watching right whether they were black white
green alien their entrepreneurial they care about things like as I was
listening and getting more context to what I generally more like this guy one
and did well in books I’m like wait a minute this guy knew
this guy knew with a mail forwarding and and blogging very early again always trying to drill home for them
that white space so that’s what i do i reverse engineer what is the biggest belt while every TV
worked because I was like because I spent 10 years in a wine shop and watch
people come in and people that were like duke law lawyers super informative i
want to work like alpha males walking in this room going to want like bring it on
my god world is so do she’s so suppressive in the same way to think
about entrepreneurship right now like I just want to empower people to be like
who gives a shit what people just do it like so anyway reverse engineer it is
very similar go ahead Jonathan wants to know last
time I heard the name tucker max I

finished i hope they serve beer and how
lot has changed what you do it all again of course I
mean I’m not here right I was trying to do a lot of things differently but you
like what’s the number again in a noble shit
way because I’m doing this because I think you could you know there’s no
other way for me to be beautiful but it but knowing that like again that’s all I
was happy when you’re like a like I want to go to like a place like I know you’ve
been on so many different things like like in a very fucking real way like what’s the one core thing you think
you can do stiffer um i would realize a lot earlier that it’s not about me right
now even though I’m really good at doing that with my heart like my stories even
though about me if you read all my books we
don’t know very much about me at all you know a lot about things that
happened to me and you’ve laughed a lot of really enjoyed it but i don’t i don’t
burn the reader with nonsense about me because people reading my books want to
be entertained they’re not trying to learn deep about my emotions whatever
right but in the way I meet business decisions
early in my career I was arrogant and stupid and I made most amazing so you
have the leverage it so there was a movie made about my first
book that movie should have done a hundred million or more the box office
and it did like two million and because of my arrogance and hubris and he wanted
to impose certain things that your creative control over I mean yeah it really was like writing
is a very singular art right it’s also i got and I don’t have anyone else help to
the brush your book to make a movie it’s a whole group of people and that
even the smallest movie ever is still being people went into that place of
like look a lot of the guys on business like right holding tight and and I did
because of that I picked the wrong director i picked most of the wrong
production you pick Danny people no I with my pic guys you made it might
have been just my vision which would be better than water water because it
became a Frankenstein yeah it was a print yet exactly and and
I picked a lot of people who told me what I wanted to hear early on but had
their own agendas for and I was blind to it and I was so caught up in myself my
own ego that I screwed up a really massive opportunity for myself sure it’s going to change that and that
goes for a hundo different things well I know it’s funny people always ask
me my biggest mistakes and I was trying to come up with something because i
don’t like to think about my mistakes I actually like this respect my mistakes
it’s a very interesting thing like I recognize them right but I give them no fucking energy
like I really like cool mistake you go over there right to you but no question
my biggest mistakes of the things that I passed on and and done no like it was interesting to
think about like that did not happen right like I could have been a judge on
Top Chef I could have done all these other
business shows like there’s a lot of things you know that i always think
about the things that I haven’t done the investing right I’ve done well but
passing on twenty twice was the clear one window to
everybody but everybody having that all right let’s go daniela asks I’m an immigrant with an
entrepreneurial dream all my parents

daniela asks I’m an immigrant with an
entrepreneurial dream all my parents care about his college which I hate any advice that stuff um did you get pressure to be a good
student no I came from one of those famous words is expected that but I’m
right there was not even writing every so I I came from we’re going to work
even a conversation on it just wasn’t a conversation I I came from one of those
weird families where high expectations were always there but my parents were
not very good at being parents and so it was basically ignored so i kinda raised
myself but unconsciously yes ceilings no only child child yeah and I think
unconsciously I understood at a very young age that the adults were never
going to help me no one was coming to help me and so I
had to learn like the system as its presented to you is bullshit and the only gift they gave me about
being terrible parents is that I was never fold by the lies that the system
tells you like school right I learn about half the system you feel
like early on you made a decision that you weren’t
getting value from your parents and thus every grown up during your youth you looked in a cynical point of view
not just the grown-ups but the actual systems of the grown-ups all operating
represented whether it’s work or whether it’s corporations or school it’s not that everything is invalid it’s
just that the the face that they present is never the reality it’s so interesting I on the other hand had amazing parents right but came to that
same realization at a very young age that I mean those are interesting
different paths to get to that place so it’s really dictated my life where I was
like oh my god I’m not this and like I’ve got another cheese I was in fourth
grade for sure I’m i crack another nine years of eating
this ship what you got out early i’m like how do i how do I break this system
how I have to make it work for me yeah you decided to win within it I decided
to literally go on vacation because i realized i subconsciously I was never
going to be on vacation again you know it’s funny is i think if we’re
talking about unconscious uh I think I I realized I had no other support you a
great parent yard I have this other world like you going – I knew my healing
i need this right i just like with this system so that I have because I don’t
have anyone like the persisting daniela i’m going to give you very difficult
device I really think you need to have the most
honest and truthful conversation we’ve ever had with your parents and then
react to their reaction i think if you really i don’t know if you’ve ever gone
there all the way we’re like this is really ruining me like like not like hey
mom and dad I don’t like school it’s like I’m suffocating and truly believe
my life will not be as good as it could be if i go down this path watching your parents reaction to those
words for made them would be will give you a really good indication because
then you get to understand are your parents wired to really value you and
what you have what where you are and what’s in your
best interest from your point of view or do they really care about their point of
view and what their child’s success means to them I become very fascinated you might have
better in saying this i grew up in a way where I didn’t know like the fancy world
and select bumper stickers of colleges on cars like like parents telling kids
to take on college debt and better schools wait a minute that’s in their
interest cuz they get the color friends at university chicago is real fancy
maybe some punk tamesha and Xander went fairly I’m like holy crap that’s interesting well so i think it’s
fantastic advice let me just add one sort of your way to frame this so when
you go talk to your parents I think the way to frame it is not
here’s my argument because you’re never going to convince someone with a
compelling argument or very rarely what you want to do is start by asking them
questions do you care about me how much do you care what do you really
care about what matters the most to you man what they’re going to say is we care
about you being happy we care about you finding yourself about you what are
right now get them to commit to that and then say
all right if you really do care about me and you really do it does matter to you
that I’m this happy I’m going to tell you I don’t want to go
to school because it makes me very college makes me very happy and trying
these other things for a year to is going to be much happier it will you support me as i do something
at least four and you can even find its temporary give me a year to support me and if it
doesn’t work I’m happy to go back to call and support me mentally right like
the financial records that slowly but i’m not i know that emotional i know
that i want to i want to bring that up for people and i would say the other
thing like look like there’s casualties of war and your parents are not going to
be around for your casualties of what they think is in your better interest in
verses you i mean the gift that I was given that i really wish I could you
know stick into every goddamn person is the audacity and competence at a very
young age to just say this is the deal like like that independence is
incredible and like and that’s hard for a lot of people but like if you’re
asking me on this show it to me actions speak louder than words if you
publicly treated this and asked me and wanted me to answer you’re just looking for somebody to push
you over the finish line many of you are watching this and think it but would
never to be publicly and fear that your parents would see it you’re clearly this close and you need
somebody to not do i will indulge you I mean I really do think there are real
moments in time to say go fuck yourself mom and dad it’s real and it’s really nothing bad
cool and growing out from this is it like this is a crossroads and a lot of
people get forced to do it there are kids with massive debt because
they want to appease their parents and they lose they lose because they kick
their twenties and don’t take the risk reward things they should be doing to
just pay down the debt and then wake up 34 and they just finally aren’t men from
something that they decided at 17 because their parents question of a
hundred percent yeah in their pit now that I’ve got older and spending time
appearance in the appearance vested interest of vanity that’s the worst that let’s do one more
well because i’m going to go to the speaker parents I gotta go run to
misha’s school and hey sorry I missed

about cars motorcycles because i love me
or my life in general I mean blocks because i love you too
what should i do because you say that you are so hard until 30 and you say
that people will respect your for your actions I dream being a successful entrepreneur
and I want to respect to but partial results or I saw work in silence I mean knowing camera and no social media what should i do very
pleased I want to go Arlene I Love You Man and anybody in
this planning is like you sorry for my english and aspiring keep pushing I’m
grant Reynolds gravity right even the editing with a little sometimes I was
even PC Steven real quick i’ll jump in Tucker please add anything you can do
this I i want to give you a definition i said
that i built a business until I was 30 32 and then I talked about business
stuff instead of being a twenty-year-old giving business advice your content
producer you’re talking about your opinions
that’s different if you were giving advice is a ten-year-old 20 or 30 year
old about building a business of building a motorcycle business or things
of that nature that’s very different than you
pontificating giving your two cents adding to culture social commentating so
I what I want to give you a definition is my whole way to your 30 to talk to
the world if you’re going to give advice I do think it should be predicated on
something advice you know giving your two cents we’re all entitled to our opinions
social commentating we’re all entitled to that making videos and commentating I think the journey of your life and
your thoughts and those things are super fine you clearly i mean i would push
very hard what I just saw give me a nice little
tingle keep pounding produce content use all the platforms use your youth and need of ability on
this world that we now live in musically snapchat produce for all mediums get it
out there yeah I mean it seems to me like he’s got
a lot of charisma right now I great totally agree on some producer so then ask yourself what we talked the
very first question what audience you want to talk to and what do they care
about and there’s a lot of young guys at that in Colombia who care about cars and
motorcycles and that stuff if you become the guy who speaks to all of them that
put you in a great position to start a lot of different days before i can tell
that’s exactly right where i can tell you nothing there’s a lot of people are actually
just curious what youth corps life and culture and Columbia’s like I was
watching that like looking the background like I learned something
about the kids like I actually think just your life is actually interesting
to so many people and nobody can you know if you’re not in Colombia you can
produce content around Colombians of use your advantages
that so many people think or disadvantage that’s exactly the man so what is going to get you get a
parting shot hear anything you want to