#AskGaryVee Episode 232: The Law of Attraction, Importance of Sales Skills & Working Smarter

I have a question for you
today is how important were your selling skills as an
entrepreneur and what are the different things that make
you improved as a salesman? Thank you very
much for answering. Love your show.
See ya. – Shu, thank you so
much for loving the show. I love you back. I think my salesmanship
was the first raw talent that I understood in my life. It has been the
bedrock of my existence. The unbelievable reason that
VaynerMedia is what it is today has a lot to do
with salesmanship. It is massively important when
you actually, it’s really funny when you actually sell something having sales skills is
extremely important. So many of you are going to fail
in your business because you underestimate salesmanship as a core tenet when you’re
trying to sell something. Many of you make the nicest
thing, the coolest thing, it’s why artists starve
’cause they can’t sell. Like selling is real. I think it’s been an enormous
part and I think the thing that’s made me better
through my career is experience. You know, like experience is a
real thing like us youngsters we want to think it’s not.
(laughter) You know what’s funny,
I put us youngsters because I think of you
as a great youngster. At 22, 23 I thought
I was it, right? I guess I look at it as like
basketball players, ’cause Dunk I know you love it, they become
better shooters as they like as they, they become craftier, they
become more experienced and the guys that are all-time you’ll
notice their game evolves, you know, through their careers
because they can’t rely just on their athletics anymore. They’ve gotta become crafty. They gotta be able to shoot. I mean I would say LeBron,
LeBron to me could have easily been the best all-time player,
he never got his jump shot developed the way that
Jordan and Kobe did. He’s a different type of
player but if his jump shot was unstoppable right
now, forget it. And his three point range has
gone down in his career instead of up and by the way I’m the
biggest LeBron guy of them all but to me imagine if LeBron,
Andy I saw you react to this. I don’t know if you, you got
something to say about this? – I mean his jump shot
is definitely improved, he does hit the jump shot. – [Gary] It hasn’t improved, his three point percentage
was down last year. It improved from early on. Yeah, it was down last year. And I think it’s
gonna continue to go. It hasn’t improved, it improved from like the
beginning but like– – [Andy] He was only taking ones
he only thought he could hit. – [Gary] And he’s
such a complete, you know what’s
tough to analyze? To that point, it’s tough to
analyze LeBron because he’s such a all-around player. He doesn’t need to score but
anyway nonetheless, the bottom line is the 22-year-old me would
be disappointed right now if he saw the 40-year-old me in
salesmanship because he would realized, huh, he’s picked up
some shit along the way that I did have just from
my natural skills. So the answer is unbelievably
and if you’re watching right now and you were building a business
and you are not a natural born salesperson or are great at it
and you are self-aware enough to know that you need to either get
a family member AKA these guys like really in your inner
circle that are gonna be there long-term and allow them to
or even bring in a partner, it is that important and if
you’re a good salesperson never allow yourself to not
continue to learn. Try different tactics,
do different things. Experience has made me better. – [Eliot] I like where
this show’s going.

This is Tyler.
I work at Luxe. I know you invested in them. I hope it’s going well for you. My question for you is
I turn 21 in exactly a month, on October 29, what wines do you recommend for a
beginning wine drinker? Thank you so much. – First of all Tyler,
send me your address Gary@VaynerMedia.com,
(clicks tongue), I’m gonna send
you something on me. I’m a big fan of New Zealand
Sauvignon Blanc’s, German Rieslings that are
have a hint of sweetness, mainly dry but a hint of
sweetness and Beaujolais and Grenache based red wines that are little bit more
palpable not as tannic, a little more fruit, a little
lighter on the red wine side. As a matter of fact,
you know what? Guys, let’s do this. This will be fun. In Facebook and YouTube,
let’s put a link to four starter wines for all the 21-year-olds,
I’ll link ’em from Wine Library, make sure I do that ’cause we’ll
forget after this and we have a bad track record, actually,
Staphon sucked at that. I think Tyler will come through. I’ll put four little links in
Facebook and YouTube for all of you in those categories I just
mentioned or I’ll actually look through Wine Library’s inventory right now and see if
anything else stands out. – [Eliot] Cool.
– Yep. – Next question is from Jessica.
– Jessica.

– Hey Gary.
What’s up? It’s Jessica Louise Li here. I was at the Archangel
event here in Toronto. I stood up to ask
you a question– – Which I crushed. – but we didn’t get it after
Gio and Nick whisked you off the stage but it’s all good. I would love to know how you
would describe joy and what brings you joy? What brings Gary joy? Thank you so much for providing
all the value that you do on stage it was amazing. Thanks for the book, I’ve been
enjoying it every single day, starting off my day that way so
thank you, thank you, thank you. – Jess, you know what? I’ve decided I’m
going to share something. For a lot of you that watch for
a long time, this is going to be a cool moment, I think
if you think it’s cool. Truth is I talk a lot about
the strategy of 51/49, giving a little bit more
for the leverage of it. The truth is it’s my
most natural joyous state. You know, I’ve molded it and
that’s not fair because I’m not manipulating or molding it,
I’m trying to be cynical here. I’ve experienced
the benefits of it from a business standpoint but I didn’t think that way
when I was eight years old, when I was 10 years old and on
my 10th birthday when my grandma took me to Toys “R” Us,
I decided to buy my sister a Cabbage Patch doll because
I knew she would be more excited about me doing that than me
buying anything at Toys “R” Us. I have always been this person. I like making people feel good
’cause it makes me feel good. I’m being selfish by providing others value ’cause it brings
me my biggest joy. And the reason I never talked
about it is what I just said is so douchy, it’s like,
you know what it is? It’s like when you interview
somebody and you’re like, “What’s your weakness?” And they’re like,
“Oh, I work too hard.” It’s like such a douchy
answer it’s a non-answer. It’s a compliment. Saying your greatest joy is
giving to others and the way that makes you feel is
a douchy thing to say. So here I am, I’ve been deep in
the GaryVee world since 2009. Please? – [Eliot] Not nearly
’cause it’s win-win. – It is a win-win but it’s like
the reason I’ve never really gone there and I don’t even know
why this question made me feel like I now went there,
yeah, of course it’s a win-win. – Yeah. – But I’m always
conscious of everybody watching. So for example, this weekend I don’t know if any
of you guys saw. Go on my Facebook
feed if you didn’t, if you’re watching on YouTube. I posted a video of me garage
sale-ing this Saturday and I showed some stuff and
it was a really fun day. – [Eliot] You should
do more of that. – I will and we already
talked about it this Saturday. Get ready for it. But I, I don’t show my kids so I wasn’t really able
to film all of it. There were people who
thought I staged it. Did you see this? There were people who
said, “Oh yeah, right. “You can’t
bullshit a bullshitter.” I’m like this fucking, if you
can’t bullshit this bullshitter I’m gonna fuckin’, the
cynicism is so wild. So wild, like do you really
think, I, with everything I’ve going on in my life and the
leverage and all the good stuff that my new plan, my new plan
was you know what this Saturday I’m gonna trick people. I’m gonna go to some store
and buy things make, what is the
matter with people? Then, somebody else was like,
“What is this all leading to? “A $10,000 how to
money on eBay course?” I’m like, “Yeah, dick face a “$10,000 how to make
money on eBay course.” No, fuck face, it’s for me to
spend some time with my kids and show people that this is the
world I came from as a kid. It’s still tangible. There’s a shitload of you that
could actually really benefit from $300 more a week in money,
learn something, including the thrill of the hunt and how to
educate yourself to know the value of things. How to do copy and salesmanship
in an eBay environment which is the most ultimate competitive
environment and how to hustle because while all of who were
sleeping Saturday morning, I was out going
through fucking trash. That’s what I was doing. So anyway, where was I going? To come out and say my great
joy is to give other people joy ’cause it makes me feel so
fucking good is gonna be met with such obnoxious amount of
cynicism that I don’t even want to waste the time on it but it’s
the answer to that question. That’s the truth and by the way, I got this is where
luck comes in. I know a lot of
you say I hate luck. Let me tell you what luck is. Luck is that you were built in a
way where that is genuinely the way you feel because then you
actually do it ’cause you love it and then enormously
awesome shit happens to you. So how do you
think I work so hard? ‘Cause I’m filled with gratitude
that I was built that way. ‘Cause that gift, that fucking
gift is the fucking thing. – [Eliot] I’m loving this. Next question is
from Ryan Blair.

As you know, I got
my book coming out, “Rock Bottom to Rock Star”
and so I figured I’d ask you questions from this framework. What, what did you do to get
through your personal rock bottom moment to become
the rock star that you are? – I’ll stop right there. Sorry. So let’s start with what. Ryan, what, you know
my rock bottom moment happened super early. It was by being an immigrant and getting teased for not
speaking English. You know, I don’t talk a lot
about drinking the pee out of the Pepsi can in Dover,
New Jersey which I never reference ’cause I lived there for a year before
I moved to Edison. Maybe even subconsciously
because of that, that was sucky
but that was five. We all got picked on, I just
think my whole childhood in some weird way, it was awesome which
is why everything is awesome but man, I don’t know if anybody could’ve disliked
school more than me. I think we all hated school
and homework but I failed. Oh, by the way, Tyler, tonight
when you get the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles things out of my
car, tonight when you get the TMNT out of my car my
report card’s in there. It’s time to take the pictures. Yeah. I struggled, I was happy, like I was a very happy kid but I hated school. Like on a different planet
and I think all of you know me. Look what’s happened in my life. Like, I really hated it. So my rock bottom moment
was really my school career. – Who, who did you surround
yourself, work with, who was it?

Was it your team? – Next. Stop right there. My mom and dad. That’s who my who were. My mom was building my
self-esteem about me. I’ll never forget, I opened the
door for a woman in McDonald’s when I was like nine, my mom,
Andy, you don’t want to hang? – [Andy] I got to run.
– You got real work. – [Andy] I got to run.
– I got it. Real work, I’m excited. My mom made that out to be the greatest that a
human had ever done. She accentuated, she blew up,
she overemphasized great things, which made me a good person. And my dad, my dad instilled
unbelievable hard work ethic. My mom did as well. Word is bond. You know,
provided for our family. Came here with zero. I look up to him so much for
that struggle so my what was the struggles early on in my
childhood, my who was my parents, who are showing me
through their actions not only their words what to do. – Who was it that you worked

with to get through
these tough times? ‘Cause I know
nobody can do it alone. Why, why did you do it? Did you do it because you loved
somebody and you wanted to show them that you were
better than that. I know you got a–
– Cool. Stop it. My why back then back then was
I had a chip on my shoulder. I was getting D’s and F’s,
you’ll see that soon with my report card content this week. I was getting D’s and F’s and the world was telling
me I was a loser. My teachers were telling me
a loser, my friends’ parents weren’t saying to my face that
I was a loser but I could see it in their eye that they didn’t
think I’d be successful because the game I played, unlike
today’s game, in the 80s, early 90s was school
was the way out. Going to Harvard was the great
accomplishment, not building Facebook or Instagram or
being a successful entrepreneur. It was a different landscape
and so, you know, the why was to fucking stick it to everybody. Like I used to sit there as a
13, 14, 15, 16-year-old and look at my class and my teachers
like I’m gonna show you. I’m gonna show all of you. You think I suck,
I’m gonna be the biggest, best person on Earth. – [Eliot] You feel like
your why has changed over the course of your career? – Nope. Because that chip
never goes away. It’s why I’m willing
to put in the work. It’s why and I want to give,
you know it’s funny, we’re getting to a theme,
I want to give. Saturday was a selfish thing,
spend time with my kids on something I care
about but I’ve done that. I didn’t film before and I had
to be very careful because I don’t want to show them. I did that because
I want to show people. I want to help
them, I inspire people. People got pumped
over the weekend. People went out Sunday
morning and made money. – [Eliot] Yeah. – I got like real emails in my
inbox like Sunday morning I got pumped. I bought this printer for 30, I just sold it for 90,
I need $60. 54 after fees, I know, dicks.
Let’s go.

So why did you do it? Did you have a deeper purpose? Did you not want to let yourself
down or let someone else down? – I don’t want to
let anyone down. Nothing down. – And then how, what
did you do specifically? What steps did you do when
you were at your lowest moment. – Yep, let’s do it. During that point,
what did I do? Is I did what I preach to all of
you which is I put in the work. I gave up all my weekends and
holidays in high school because I knew I had to pay that price
because I wasn’t gonna do the I’m gonna go to school, meet
some good kids at Stanford and Brown and Ivy League school. Make some relationships and
that’s gonna be my springboard. I was gonna start with no
relationships and in the gutter and I was gonna have to prove it
and I would have to show up and meet everybody like I did in my
30s but in my teens and 20s, I was gonna have to work. And so what I did was to the
extreme of anybody I’ve met that had options, some people lose
their father, mother, welfare but anybody who had some
options, I punted every leisure activity in my life. Nothing, no weekends,
no vacations, zero, nothing. Nothing. Like we’re making jokes about
the seven days, I didn’t take a single, and by the
way, it’s my truth. I didn’t take a
single vacation day. Never and I’m sure you
worked on your side hustle, I just love you and
I didn’t want to razz you. None. Zero, zero, zero. All my high school friends,
gone, because I wasn’t around. All my college friends,
post-college, gone. I’d see them a little bit. I love those guys but gone. Girlfriends, nothing. All-in. So what did I do? I worked. I worked to such an extreme
level that when I push you on work, I don’t even ask you to
do 50% of what I did and I guarantee you’ll fucking win.

– Hey Gary and Gary’s crew. Good evening from
Lincoln, Nebraska. I’m Blake Bowland actually
enjoying a Malbec currently. Pretty good one from Argentina. But was thinking about a question for the
#AskGaryVee show. Specifically one pertaining
to the #AskGaryVee book. Gary, in the book you talk about
how you believe our brains and what they’re capable of are
vastly underestimated and that science has yet to prove really
what they’re truly capable of. You also mention as an example
that a few years ago you told your brain you didn’t
want to get sick any more. Then you attributed the fact
that you haven’t gotten sick to when you told your brain that you didn’t want to
get sick any more. Now I recently stumbled
upon the Law of Attraction. I’d heard of it before but I really dug in depth
in a audiobook. If you’re familiar with it,
and for those of you who aren’t familiar with it the Law of
Attraction basically states whatever you focus on
will manifest itself. So if you focus on the things
you want to accomplish and you believe you can accomplish them,
they will manifest themselves over time whereas if you focus
on the things you don’t want those things will also
manifest themselves. So the point is to focus
on the things you do want. So Gary, I’m wondering about
the relationship between your beliefs and the Law of
Attraction and if you could explain how we in Vayner Nation
can leverage those concepts to better live our lives both personally and
in our businesses. So, Gary, really looking forward
to your response here and thank you so much for
taking my question. God speed. – Blake, it’s a really
interesting question. Yes, I believe in some of that
stuff and I don’t know how much of the Law of Attraction is
different than “The Secret”. Sounds very similar. These books sell like crazy
because, boy, does it sound super fun right now if you’re
sitting on Facebook Live or watching episode 232,
is that what we’re on? – [Eliot] Yeah. – And you’re like,
“Wait a minute, “if I just say I want a yacht “or if I just say I want
to be a pop singer “or I just want to say
I’m gonna be an influencer.” I don’t know what either of
those two books say but let me give you what I’ve done. Go ahead, please, you know. – [Eliot] The Law of Attraction,
“The Secret” is basically based off of the Law of Attraction.
– Okay. – So the Law of Attraction
is the, it’s like the religion. And “The Secret” is a
book which is basically– – Plays on it? – It’s very huckster-y
from the Law of Attraction. – Got it. So listen, I believe in it, all of your actions
have to then map to it. It’s clouds and dirt. That’s my version of it. I don’t know if anybody
talks about the dirt. I do.
I do. I know all, you know,
cynical newbies are like, “What’s he gonna sell me on?” Nothing. I’m gonna sell you
on the following: hard work. And don’t buy my hard work
course ’cause there isn’t one. There’s no hard work sessions. There’s no hard work e-book. There’s just hard work. My answer to this is I believe
in it but then you have to make your actions map it. I want to buy the New York Jets. I think about it, I want it,
I start building VaynerMedia, there’s an opportunity to sell
my company, sell a piece of my company to
thousands of entities. All of them pass. I then sell it for
less to one entity. An owner of an NFL team. That’s called putting your
money where your mouth is. I didn’t do that by accident. I knew what kind of life I had. I could’ve dated and married a
bunch of different people but when I found what I needed
for what I really knew I wanted, I went in that direction. Right? I talk about HR driven culture
and this and that and some people be like, “Oh, you got
a bad review on Glassdoor “or four or seven.” Yes, that’s fine but come here. Watch what I do everyday. You guys know my
calendar, you see what I do. You know what’s on
the back end of this. So my belief in the
Law of Attraction is Blake, believe in it. Believe in it but then you have
to execute against your belief. If you want to be an e-sports
celebrity, shouldn’t you spend every one of your minutes
selling shit on eBay, buying a ticket and then going
to the e-sport con not like, “Oh, I can’t go to
the e-sports con.” – [Eliot] Okay. – Work. Work. By the way, on that note, we
got to pick up the Musical.ly. You’re a killer
on it, I want it. I’m so into it. That work, work,
work one is so fun. – I was thinking,
I was thinking about it. – I was saying it
right now with that. That tone. Work. It’s work. There’s gonna be nothing else. Yes, work smart. I can hear the cynicism already. I can read the comment
from Sally right now, “But you got to work smart.” No shit, Sally. I’m leaving Rick
alone for a minute. You know, no shit. Yes, it’s better to have a
better strategy and to work smarter but
here’s the punchline, nothing happens without it. And I mean a lot of it
and the more you want, the more work you got to put in. The bigger your ambition, the
more you got to punch that clock and you got to give up shit,
fun and leisure and laziness and rest and all of it. So my belief is it’s real. I live it. But my actions map to it. It’s like intent. I talk a lot about intent. Some of the people
internally razz me about it. They’re like, “Yeah, cool but
intent without your backing “up the actions is whack.” And I’m like, “I respect that.” But it starts with intent so
I believe it probably starts with visualizing what you want
or the Law of Attraction or saying it or putting it in
the universe, fine. Fine. I believe in that. I live it. The problem is
I disproportionately out execute everybody else I know that talks about it and then does
nothing about it. You know how many of you tweeted
me that you’re gonna buy the Cavs or the
Dolphins or the Rams. People tweet me all day long
that they’re buying another sports team and then I go
look at what they’re doing, I’m weird. Just let’s establish
something, I’m very weird. I’m so broken in the way that
I’m so utterly competitive, that I’m like, I live for it. You know, I live
for competition. And so when somebody tweets
me that they’re going to buy the Rams first, I waste seven of my
minutes auditing their lives. (group laughter) Let me tell all of
you something right now. I haven’t seen the person
that’s buying the Rams before I buy the Jets. People like to talk, show me. ‘Cause that’s the best part. Because when you live on
execution, all those days you have where people say you’re
staging garage sales or you’re not gonna do this or
you’re not gonna do that, you know what the best part is? 2023. 2023 because then you
get to say, now what? And 2047, that’s more fun. I’ll let you guys all debate and pontificate and I’m
gonna do it too. We’re all talking, I just want to re-watch these
videos and comments. Let’s go read everybody’s
comments that I could never build VaynerMedia. Let’s go read everybody’s comments that
Wine Library TV was a farce. Let’s go read all
those comments that I’m a flash in the pan. Let’s read them all. Let’s fucking read ’em. (group laughter)