– Hey Gary, congratulations on two years of a successful show, I just love it, I watch it all the time and I get all sorts of
great advice from you. My name is Shauna, I’m from HasteandHustle.com and I just wanted to ask
you a quick question. My question is when you’re at the beginning of your business, or I guess at any
time of your business, how do you know how much
risk is too much risk? And when to kinda pull back? Thanks again. – No worries, thank you. Shauna, I got a really
good answer for this. I believe that risk is a
very interesting thing. And I’ve got a pretty
good career with it and I will tell you here’s
what mine looks like. I risk as much as I’m
willing to completely lose. And I push it as far as possible. And that’s always my model. That if all goes to
zero on this move, can I still be
breathing and stay alive? Anything that would
put me out of business, put me out of business! And people do that, they
borrow too much money, they dilute themselves
in the company, that could make them lose
control from the board. Anything that would
put me at risk, I stay away from. So, the punch line
is very simply, I’m willing to lose every penny, other than the first penny that I need to breathe. All of it. You know, we do things
here all the time, Vayner, where I invest
and buy things, buy companies, buy,
AcuHire people. And the number’s
always gotta be, if it goes to dead zero, will I still be alive
to fight another day. But I take it right
to that edge. And really not like,
to the penny, probably to
the million dollars. A hundred million
dollar business, the one… you know, just
some little nest egg. But I think, I’m stunned by people that take risks that
actually puts them out. Floyd Mayweather doesn’t take any risks like that as a boxer. That’s why he’s undefeated. Yeah. – [India] From Sean.
– Sean.

– Hey guys, what’s up? With who do you really want
to work with before you die? Keep up the good work. – I’ll go first. I want to for work
with Vince McMahon. – [Man] Oh WWF?
– Yes, sir. – WWE.
– And I’ll tell you why. WWE now but we’re old school.
WWF. Yeah, I’m Macho
Man Randy Savage. – Randy. – For me, I love storytelling
and I love people that loved characters. What I get excited about is
Walt Disney, Vince McMahon, people that create
characters and IP. Intellectual property so for
me Vince is intriguing to me because I’m 40 I grew up in that
era of the golden era of that Hulkamania, Macho
madness and so– – The Hulkster’s my man. – Yeah, Hulk was in
here the other day. It was a lot of fun.
For me it’s Vince McMahon. You?
– Shit. What was the question – Who do you–
– ’cause he got me fucked up. I was in Gary’s world right now. (laughter) What was the question again? – [India] Person you want
to work with before you die? – Person I want to
work with before I die. I don’t know I think
I would want to do a movie with Will Smith.
Something like that. – Nice answer.
– Will Smith– – Did you Will, I mean you
were around back then so– – Nah, man.
– Was he a little earlier? – Nah, he was earlier than me
and I met Will maybe once or twice but I mean like if there’s
anybody I want to make a movie with it’s Will Smith. – Joe, have you thought about
doing collaborations on cross genre music? Have you ever heard
a country singer or? – That’s what I want to
work with, country music. – Really? – Yeah, that’s who
I want to work with. – I actually, this is me from
afar, as a fan, just thinking about it I have a funny feeling
that you would do quite well in collaborations in
different genres. – It’s true and that’s
where I’m looking towards. Right now country music. – Andy, I’m not just predicting
social media shit, Andy. I predict music shit. – No, it’s the fucking truth. (laughter) It’s the truth–
– I love it. – I’m looking towards country. I don’t know shit about country
but I fucking love that their fans are loyal.
– [Gary] Loyal. – I love that the fans are
fucking loyal and I love they’re like hip hop. They’re just
telling it their own way. – [Gary] 100%. – And they’re coming
from the ground up. I fucking love it.
– [Gary] 100%. You imagine Fat Joe and TSwift? That would be the summer anthem. – Some people get a beat
up at country shit too. I seen Kenny Chesney’s shit. – There’s thugs everywhere.
– We got thugs everywhere.

The question I have is you
did that song with Ashanti a while ago. I think it’s
called “What’s Love”. How do artists ever hook up and how do they get to collaborate with each other? Is there somebody like producers
that brings that or agent, how does that happen? – How do collabo’s happen?
Take it away. – A lot of times with me when
I make music I hear a certain artist on it and I reach out
and I hope they want to work with me.
– Like flat-out? You got it in your head and
you’re like this would be perfect for this person? – Let’s skip that.
– Go ahead. – Let’s just say Cool & Dre, Scott Storch may get it popping and I immediately
heard Nelly on there. So we reached out and Cool & Dre
wrote the hook and I reached out to Nelly and I was like, “Nelly, do you want to do
this hook over for me,” and he said yes. We heard him on the song. “Make It Rain” I wrote the hook
to “Make It Rain” and I heard Lil Wayne on it because it was a
South song and I was like, “Yo, Wayne can you do this
over,” he did it. You hear certain artist that you
want to collaborate with on the songs and you hope sometimes. – Have you ever been devastated
when you’ve really wanted it? – Not devastated but I’ve been
chasing Future on this album and he’s been acting
real Hollywood with me. Acting like he don’t
want to do this song. – Uh-huh.
– Got to be honest with you. – Playing hard to get you think? – Yeah, hard to get
sometimes it’s like that. You know?
– Of course. Let me play it in for
everybody who’s watching. Same thing in business, a lot of
people always ask me how do you get an angel deals when you
invest in the people when you are doing these things?
It comes in all forms. Sometimes it comes to you,
sometimes reach out but I love, I was curious how you
were going to answer it. I think sometimes people try to
big up too much and I have too much pride and they don’t want
to reach out. When you want something you have to
go out and grab it. I love instead of you saying oh
sometimes it comes to me or this and that you said look I hear
somebody I wanted, I’ll reach out. Sometimes they say yes,
sometimes they say no. Way too many people
watching right now, you know how successful this
man is in his genre? You know how many of you are
too proud to reach out to do something with somebody and you
haven’t made shit happen yet. – Nah, that’s not how it works.
– No, it is not. – That’s not how it works. – I think one thing and I’ll use
this moment I’ve been wanting to say this to really win you
have to equally pull at ego and humility. What do you think? – What I have done,
what I’ve done the new Fat Joe– – And when did the new Fat
Joe come out in your world? – Maybe this year.
– Okay. – Let’s just say
it all the way up. – Okay. Yep. – I’ve had riffs and not
everything was so good between me and Jay-Z in the past.
– [Gary] Yep. Yep. – I reached out to him–
– [Gary] Be the bigger man. – Yes and collaborated
and we did the remix. – [Gary] That was big
news in that world. That was big news. – I did not see eye to
eye with Daddy Yankee. I got him on the Spanish remix.
– [Gary] Mhmmm. – Me and 50 Cent made peace and now we performed together not too long ago.
I laid down. – [Gary] Are you enjoying this? – I’m enjoying it because you
eliminate all the barriers. – That’s right.
– You know what I’m saying? All the enemies and
all the people– – When did this happen?
January 1 thing for you? Was it a long time? – It wasn’t January 1.
It was just me. I tried all the wars–
– Right. – And then I just said to
myself, you know what I’m going to eliminate all obstacles. And I’m going to try to say
put all ego and pride aside and let me just try
the non-ego route. Let me try working with
everybody and see how this workin’ and so far we’re
platinum on the single, go on to double platinum,
tours opening up– – Go figure.
Go figure. Go with positivity
and imagine that. – It’s a magical miracle
pill that seems to be working. – Yeah, it happens.
I’m glad you went there. It’s been a theme of mine
over my whole life but I’ve been really… With all the shit that’s
going on in the world, if you can’t go half glass full. If you can’t be the person of
change and drive positivity and optimism I just
think it is a mistake. India.
– Mhmmm. – [India] This is from Craig.
– Craig.

“from scratch, what metrics
would you look “at to determine success?” – Uh, if you’re starting
from scratch, what metrics would you look
at in measuring success? – [India] Yes. – Money in and profit post money in. And I’m actually making a
joke but I’m being serious. It’s so funny, I just
had a business meeting. I think a lot of people have metrics for the sake of metrics. Marketing for the
sake of marketing. If you have a business
the only metric that you should be
paying attention to is your top line revenue
and your profit at the end of the day
that can afford to pay your costs that
are driving your business. Now, if you’re very,
very early on, you want to see traction. But I think the reason I’m
jumping on this question is we now live in a
culture where so many people think the following, which is they’ve been
affected by Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
and Snapchat. If you get tens of
millions of followers it doesn’t matter that
you don’t make money. You eventually
become a billionaire. The problem is that works
for seven companies. That is not the norm. Most people try to, and this is what’s
going to happen over the next decade my friends, you will see, and over
the next three years, you will see an enormous
amount of companies that went and tried to
get 10,000, 100,000, a million users, didn’t get there, weren’t the hot product,
the unicorn, the once in a
generation business. The once in a
generation business. And they ran out of money. And then you go out of business. So what I really want
to ground this first question in, in practicality. The only metric a business person should be understanding
is their cash flow. Money in, money out. How do you build momentum? Is it heading in the right direction? I’m very proud that AJ
and I and the senior leadership that helped
us along the way, we built an actual business here. VaynerMedia wasn’t a valuation. VaynerMedia is
revenue and profit. And I do think that
we have gotten way too into
users and mentions, and the one that
bothers me the most, number of followers, and we’ve got away from
what are you doing? Do you know how many people
have come up to me and they’re like, yeah I’m struggling, and they’re like this is
actually, DRock you were with me, it really hit me during
that one kid coming up to me in Colorado, and I don’t
want to pick on the kid, but like everybody thinks
that amassing a following on social media is a business. Amassing a following on
social media is a platform for you to create
a business on top of. A business, is a functioning
organization that sells something that
you make profit in so you can sustain
that business and grow (snap)

“How do you deal with people
who take advantage of you? “You give, never take. “Does it get lonely?” – Yeah, I mean I think
what I tend to do. I’m tying a lot of
these things together. One of the reasons
I don’t try to manipulate GlassDoor like all my
friend’s companies do is it helps you
actually get the truth. I think one of the
things that’s great about meritocracy, open ended,
not holding grudges is that you get to see truths. One of the things that I
think I’ve done quite well, and I highly recommend
to a lot of you is not to manipulate situations. So by letting things
play out, you get hurt. But because I’m so
emotionally strong, or I like to think I am,
it gives me data. When people hurt me
or take me for granted or don’t see the bigger picture, I don’t look at that
as a negative, I look at it as a data point. It allows me to decide
what opportunities I want to give that person
if I’m in control. Do I wanna do things
with that person if I’m not in control. Do I give that
person opportunities because I am in
control in reverse. If I think that they’re
being very appreciative or they see the big picture. So one of the things that
I think is quite important is not manipulating one’s truth. And so, to me, somebody
taking advantage of me is very common. A, I’m most comfortable in
being taken advantage of because I like the leverage of it. So it’s a whole weird
think of my own mishegoss, which is craziness
in Yiddish I think. So, I’ve got my
own kind of thing. I love giving. I create environment. I’m self aware enough
to know that I create a lot of the beds that I make that lead to people
taking advantage of me because I don’t create
boundaries of my giving early on and the behavior
becomes it’s like just like anything else right. Like you know, rich
kid, by eating too much. By anything, discipline, if
you’re not creating parameters so I feel like I make
the bed to do that, thus I can’t be a hypocrite
and be upset about it. The reason I like it is
I think I win twice. One, it just feels nice. I don’t mind it, I’m good. I’m good so I’m not scared
by people doing negative things to me because
I’m globally good, emotionally, forever. Two, it’s just data, I just
love watching people navigate in a blank space. If you don’t make
too many rules, if you don’t have
too much to process, if you do run your
company quickly, if you do all those things,
you actually get to see what people actually do in
real life circumstances, not the manipulated rules
and structures and processes that you create that
inevitably slow you down, make you too big to change
and lead to your demise in the game of entrepreneurship. So, I’m very calculated
and comfortable, C-C, calculated and
comfortable in the way that I go businesses
and very honestly, whether you like it or not, whether I like it or not,
the results have spoken for themselves. I win, and I think that
when I look at other people playing similar games,
they win too, and so, you know,
how do I feel about it? I feel like I’m thankful
that I’m in an emotional place that allows me to be
able to eat it for breakfast, and I think any of you that
are emotionally capable to be taken
advantage of, should. It’s called leverage.

“for VaynerMedia on
GlassDoor so bad?” – So this one’s tough for me. There’s a lot of reasons why our reviews on
GlassDoor for VaynerMedia are not as good
as they should be or the reality of our culture. I think, first of all,
I think it has a lot to do with many different things. First of all,
anonymous websites, right? So you look at Secret and
Whisper and Anonymous, you’re gonna get people that
are willing to go to extremes when nobody can figure
out who that person is. So anonymous leads to it. Two, we’ve gone from 30 to
650 people in four years. There’s a lot of pain in that, and a lot of people that
are employees struggle with the constant change and
the different decision making. I move very quickly
and a lot of times I don’t do the greatest job explaining my
actions to everybody, and I think that creates,
you know, I think that a lot of movement, and a lot of structural
changes creates a lot of angst for people
that are more comfortable and it’s easy for
the entrepreneur, it’s harder for the employees. Three, I think cynicism is
unfortunately quite powerful, so I think that that’s the case. I think some of the
early ones back in 2011 are just, I think I did a bad job. I wasn’t really the
active CEO of Vayner, and I don’t think we
micromanaged our youngest talent. So I feel good, I mean I feel
bad, but good about the ones that are in 11, I think
the last 15 of them, and I read them all
50 times a month are coming from employees
that I don’t think we saw the world the same way. I mean, I don’t know
what people expect from former employees,
but if they’re fired or if they quit, they
obviously don’t feel great about the business,
and that’s okay. I mean, I think you
go look at any, the is why I think
Yelp and GlassDoor, and all these
anonymous sites struggle, because what you don’t have is, I’m not gonna do
what most companies do, which try to incentivize
their employees to leave positive reviews to
offset the negative reviews. That’s not gonna happen. I use them as feedback loops. Even though we try here. But these are people
that are not happy with the way we’re doing things. But I think the problem
is the silent majority. It’s kind of like the Britain Exit. I have so many
friends who are like, I wish I voted. I mean, you had a
chance but you didn’t. I think its politics, right? There’s a lot of people
that don’t talk about their views on, you hear it, you look on the internet,
you see the loud minorities dictate a narrative. And then the
punchline is mainly, I think everything
starts from the top, which is I actually like having
a bad review on GlassDoor, I think that any individual
that takes an anonymous website of former employees,
and people say they’re current employees
that are former, I had somebody who
I did a nice thing for, call me and say look, I just
wanted you to know something, when I left a bad review, this
is somebody I did something nice for a year after
they are fired. They called me
because they felt guilty, and said I left a
really nasty review because I felt that was unfair. I was super immature,
and I also left it as a current employee
because I thought that would hurt you more. So like, you know,
I think that anybody who would stay
out of a company, any company looking at,
Vayner what have you because of GlassDoor or
any other anonymous site as the proxy to what’s
actually happening there, is exactly the kind of
people that I wanna keep out. It’s the people playing
checkers versus chess, they’re so, I don’t
wanna say basic minded, because I don’t
wanna razz, but like, I don’t understand how
somebody wouldn’t understand that this is an
anonymous site of people that are the least
happy about something. So I think there’s
a lot of reasons we have a tough review there. They don’t make me happy. I’m really upset when people
are unhappy with things, but I’ll be honest with
you, when you’re the CEO of a company that has gone
through 1000’s of employees over the last four years, I’ve
has a lot more conversations one on one with somebody
saying that they’re mad at me, or they don’t like things and
they’re saying it to my face, that hurts even kind of more
because I respect them so much for going that route. And I wanna fix it for them. You know, I’m in the
firefighting business. Everything is always hard. There’s always problems. But I’m pretty confident about what’s actually
happening here. I think that shows
in it’s results. I think when you look at the
macro turnover rates here, voluntary turnover
is what I look at, we’re crushing the market. People aren’t leaving
because they want, you know, ’cause they don’t like it here. And so, there’s always gonna
be a percentage of people that don’t like certain things, and I don’t think I’m perfect
or this company is perfect. Especially because we’re always
making different changes. But I know that no CEO
organization has more intent to have people
talk to us about it. Some people,
I look at my own father, some people keep things inside
and will never share it, and so I can’t fix
what I don’t know, and then when it
doesn’t work out, whether on their
choice or our choice because they kept
that poison in, a lot of those same
people can’t communicate in real life but love
to go on anonymous site and get that poison out. And to be frank with you, I actually love GlassDoor,
for A helping me not allow people to come in
that have low EQ and are looking at
a basic level, and B, I’m happy that
those people are able to get their poison of
what they feel about me or VaynerMedia out of their body and move on just like I
talked about in the beginning. I hope it helps,
and I hope with that out, they can take a step back,
look at the big picture and maybe reach out to me and
continue our relationship. I’m very proud of my relationship with a lot of former employees
that left on bad terms. And I will continue
to do that forever because I care about my legacy. Because I’m more selfish
about that than the money. Than things that nature. And by the way, you know,
as somebody who’s very close to their business,
I would say I’m 70% sure of the exact person
that leaves that review and there’s a lot of,
I’m never confused. You know, it just makes sense, like sometimes
things don’t go well. Inter-people relationships
and things of that nature and so it is what it is. It’s a challenge
because I care so much, but if you’re watching
this and you’re currently at Vayner, or you used
to be at Vayner and you still have
negativity in you, I’m super available. I’m Gary at VaynerMedia,
I’ve always been available. I’ll always be available. And I think that to me
is much more interesting. You know, I’m not worried
about the perception. GlassDoor’s 2.6 rating
on VaynerMedia isn’t stopping the 1000
applications a week we’re getting or the growth of my company. I care way more about the 20
people that are upset with me or this, I’m here to fix it. Forever, if there’s
actually something to fix, and even if there’s not. – [Britt] Do you
have time for one more?

People, organizations you
won’t work with for whatever reason? – That’s an interesting question. You know and actually, one thing I promised myself
on my comeback trail, here in episode 216 is I’m
gonna answer these questions not just kind of
literally, black and white, but I’m gonna really
challenge myself. I think the golden
eras of the show was when I could
answer the question, but also then know how to bring
value to the whole audience and I, right off the bat,
came in hot, I’m excited. Which is, I don’t and
now let’s talk about it. I truly believe that
anybody who has a shit list has a vulnerability. Because when you’re
using negativity to drive your success,
I think that’s a problem. To me, spending
any energy and time, with a list of people I don’t
wanna do business with or put out of business, or
negative, or like people that got me and
I’m gonna get them back, I think is insane. It’s stunning to me, looking
back at my 20 year career. There was a guy that I went
to a wine tasting of, went to the wine tasting in
New York City at the Hilton. The Wine Spectator
National Wine Tasting, all the best wineries are there. I came in, and I come,
and I go to this winery, and they have this great
Shiraz, Australian wines are getting super hot, and I’m
like selling a lot of them, more than anybody
in the country. And I come and I’d like
to taste your wine, thinking this guy was
going to react really well because we sold a ton of it. He goes into a curse
laden, I’m a piece of crap. And I’ve never lad this
happen to me in life. Like just drilled me. You’re the devil of the
industry, I hate you. Like nasty, nasty, nasty stuff. And it was because
I was selling his wine at the most aggressive
price in the country and he thought
I was killing his brand, meanwhile, there were 30
other stores selling it for that price, but he hadn’t
been on top of technology yet and didn’t know there was
a site called Wine-Searcher that allowed you to see
every price on the internet, and I was just matching the
best price in the country. But because I was
the biggest guy, when I emailed it
and promoted it, all the other stores that
were selling it for more called and complained. He did no homework,
he was immature, he was very hot at the time so
he had the audacity and ego. Needless to say, the
Australian wines got less hot, over the next five years,
and then that coincided with Wine Library TV’s explosion, and then this guy who said I
was the devil of the industry and the worst piece of
crap, and a loser kid and was never going
to amount to anything, emailed me, five years
later, begging for me to be on the show for
exposure for his wine. And with no hesitation
I said yes. I believe being the bigger man. I believe not holding grudges. I believe that one of the
reasons I’m successful in life, let alone business is I don’t
allow poison or negativity to be stored within my confines, and I think it’s a very big thing. I’ve been talking a
lot more about optimism and positivity being
a real factor, I’m starting to get
a little more zen in my older age, and
I believe that if you have a shit list, if you have a list, if you hold a grudge, you’re
coming at your own expense. That you’re not doing
anything, do I forget? No. But it’s just context,
it doesn’t mean I’m going to get you with it, it just
means I have to navigate around it, and that’s
a very big difference. I don’t wanna stick it to you. I just need to navigate
around your truth and there might be
some negativity there, and I wanna get around it. I don’t wanna walk into your
cancer over and over again, punch in the face either. So, I would highly
recommend for all of you, If I can do anything
with this episode, if this becomes the
moment in your life where you stop thinking
having a shit list. By the way, so many people
in my family love that. They love the grudge list,
Eastern European old school, we’re gonna get them,
we’re gonna stick it to them in the end. I think the positivity
and the winning. I think nothing sticks it to
anybody better than results. Instead of tearing them down, just get so God damned big
that that’s the ultimate I got you back. And that comes
through positivity.

– [Voiceover] Tom asks,
“How’d you girls get hooked “up with Jake Udell?” How big of an influence
has it had on your career?” – High school.
– Yep. I graduated with Jake Udell. Jake was in my science,
what was it? Which science class?
Was it biology? All I know is I got a D. Got a D. (laughter) And Jake you were
actually if you want to talk about your music career. You were pursuing
being an artist. – I was an awful rapper.
Like the worst. DJ Khaled and DJ Drama
actually posted my mix tape. – Why didn’t you just
put in the 10,000 hours? – I did. I did.
– And become– – So here’s the thing
I gave up on my 10,000 hours as a musician– – Because you
didn’t have the talent. – Okay, I’ll admit that.
– Jake has this swag. – See here’s the thing, I made
a pivot and said okay– – Because you were smart. Because not everybody
can do anything if they put in 10,000 hours. – I actually believe, I believe
that if you put in the 10,000 hours it can happen. I’m not saying you can be
performing at the Grammys but you can it’s possible
to have a hit record. I believe that can happen. – Okay. Anything can happen. But it doesn’t
consistently happen. To me that’s the
point which is like– – That’s what’s so fascinating
about what Malcolm said though. Malcolm said he couldn’t find
people that have put in the 10,000 hours that
hadn’t made it. Of course ’cause their stores
weren’t known because he was trying to find them and
he couldn’t find them. – How many hours did
you put into rapping? – Oh my gosh.
– Exactly. – Not 10,000 though,
not even close. – But that’s impossible. If you suck shit at something
and you put 10,000 hours you’re not going to become
one of the greats in it. – Right.
– I was a better marketer. – There’s enormous amounts of
kids, every single kid that tried become a professional
athlete that didn’t become a professional athlete which is
almost everybody put in all the hours from first grade to
senior year and didn’t make it. – 10,000 though? That’s the
thing when you look at that– – I don’t know the math
on what 10,000 hours is. – Did I spent 10,000 hours for
my rap career or was I 10,000 hours in the studio? I was definitely not 10,000
hours in the studio trying to be the best rapper.
– I love Malcolm. Nobody can convince me. If that was true then we should
tell every six-year-old right now to spend every minute of
your time on the number one thing that you want to be and
you will become that and that is absolute bullshit. – I think that’s
absolutely true. – So you think if I take a first
grader right now and say you’re going to become a
world-class surfer– – If he wants to be. – if he or she wants to be than
you’ll think they’ll become a world-class surfer? – That’s so tough. I think they’ll find
their career in surfing. I think that’s a logical great
decision that six-year-old. – And you’re saying that because
you found your career in the music industry whether or not
you were trying manage or not. – The thing is the guy before,
the first question he was asking about– – Nobody wants to be a manager
when they want to be a star. – I do.
– No, now. – Oh yeah.
– When you were 11– – I believed in them more than
I believed in myself so that was the turning point. – Because they had talent.
– Yeah. They’re good. – I think that that’s the point. I really mean that because you
have to understand where I’m coming from and where my energy
is coming from. Right now we are looking to the greatest era
of fake entrepreneurs ever. Every single person that is
under 25 is coming out of school and they’re like,
“I’m an app founder.” I’m sure you talk to these
people everybody’s a fucking entrepreneur and they just think
because they’ve said it and they’re gonna put in the time
and effort that automatically makes them a successful
entrepreneur and that’s the key. Which is you can be anything. Do I believe if I put in 10,000
hours into surfing that I’d be a good surfer?
I sure do. Do I think I could
win the competitions they have in Hawaii? No, I do not. I think there is a secondary
thing that has to happen. Look at the NBA. You mentioned Adele, what
about the 12th man on the Heat. Right? He’s one of the best 300
basketball players in the world but and he’s made it but what
about a person right after that the person in the D-League that’s making tens of
thousands of dollars? That guy is literally one of 500
best basketball players in the world but hasn’t won,
hasn’t made it by the Malcolm categorization. And then you have just millions
of people, there’s millions of people that are trying to make
EDM and hip hop music right this second and so many of them
can’t succeed in the marketplace ’cause the talent is a variable. I really do believe that. I just don’t see how one
doesn’t understand that. There’s so many
people that want it. There are so many people that
put in those hours in so many things and especially in music
and sports which are very high glossy, exciting things to be in
society like I don’t know. I’m fascinated by the talent
conversation because I think it is a dangerous conversation because I was picking
and prodding. The reason I’m in a good mood
as you’re talking a lot more now about self-awareness. I think a lot of kids right
now are getting eighth place trophies and they think they are
good enough and then the world hits them in the face and that’s
what we have so much depression and other things that people
don’t everybody was a “rah-rah.” Everybody wants you can do it. Nobody understands that when
they don’t do it what happens that kid’s psyche.
– Mhmmm. – I think part of being a
successful young person is you get the opportunity
to make those pivots. You get the opportunity to say,
“Okay I’m in eighth place maybe “I should become a coach. “Maybe I should change
my career progression.” – When you’re getting the
direction that you can still do it, you can still do it when so
few can then you start getting into a place where we’re selling
a bill of goods to the youth that isn’t true and you start
dealing with what I think the mental health issues that
are not being talked about where everybody all of a sudden
after 50 years of prosperity in America thinks that they’re
going to become Adele and LeBron and they don’t and
then they’re baffled. – Do you think that when you
talk about the 10,000 hour rule that the people that are making
it, do you think part of that is the equation is
perseverance though? You should have heard the songs
we wrote back in a day and we still write to this day and I
could have checked out and said, “Hey, I just don’t have talent.” – I don’t think there is a
single person that’s successful that didn’t put
in the hard work. Which is the reverse
of the conversation. I just don’t think that if you
put in the hard work you can necessarily be successful. There’s nobody that’s achieved
what you’ve achieved or what I’ve achieved that got
there by accident and didn’t put in the work. – How many entrepreneurs or
talented people have you met that have put in the level of
work that you’ve put in in to what you do to create all of
this amazing office by the way that haven’t made it
in a significant level? I don’t know any. – First of all, nobody works 18
hours a day like I do but (laughter) the punchline is I know a lot of
kids that have been hustling for the last six or seven years
trying to build and are on the third business and
they’re never going to make it. A lot. Because they’re schlemiels. – They’re what?
– Schlemiels. They don’t have it.
– That’s a Russian word? – It’s probably a Yiddish word if I had really get to
the core of it. They don’t have the skill to be
a business person that can make a business successful. The end. There the kids on “American
Idol” who literally come, think they’re Adele sing
and we all laughed. – The fact that they’re on their
third business a lot of them being schlemiels is that
they’re kinda BS, they’re not– – Let’s go into a
different place. Are you telling me that
talent has no part of the equation of success?
– Oh huge. – Well that’s
what you’re saying. – Huge. – I just want you to
know by definition. I want you watch this–
– To achieve talent. I truly believe that and there
have been some people in our experience that have come around that we maybe met
three, four years ago. – I understand. I think people can break
through and get better. Do you think everybody can? Do you think the majority can?
– No. – But I think everybody
has a unique talent though. It might not be music or
sports but you have to find it. Part of being a successful
20-something is understanding how to maneuver in times of
change and understand that you have to sometimes
pivot to be successful. – And how many of
those 20-year-old are gonna find success? – As many that want to.
– That’s not true. – As many who are studying the
same principles and same values that you have. – Last question before
I get really burning. I feel like I’m going to burn
this table now but I love it. I love it because I love it
because I love, first of all, it’s so funny because on the most
optimistic person I know and I feel like I’m
Debbie Downer here. I do think what’s scaring me and
why I’m talking about it is I think the pendulum swinging
a little bit too much to “Anybody can make it.
Everybody can make it. “Just put in the work.” I believe in that but I think
that maximizes what you have. I think the work will maximize
what you have I just don’t think everybody has it. Especially when
you get into art. When you get into music and
sports and things of that nature I think that is a tough challenge.
Last question. – [Voiceover] Chris asks,
“How do you girls stay so

– Hey Gary, hey Fredrik, hey
India, hope everything is well. I’m so excited to be part of the
show and I hopefully make this but I am interested is it better
focus on branding or better to focus on transactions when you
are starting out as a new agent in the luxury market
in New York City. Oh my God, I’m so excited. (laughter) – Lenny, the man. – Both. – By the way, I’m
going to stop you. – Okay, good.
This is your show. – That’s the fucking answer.
– I’m just the guest. – That’s the fucking answer. What people don’t understand
is branding and sales. Because he looks at me as a
human check running around and he wants to be transactional
he’s gonna win in the same way that I think sales
matters so much. But much like him and he
accomplishes it his way I think what has made me successful at the level that
we’re at is branding. And branding, what’s remarkable
is his charisma and that moment in time and I don’t know why the
picked him or what happened the serendipity a lot of those
things, he had that opportunity at a huge scale. The fact that all of you have
the opportunity to make a video be on this and now hundreds
thousand people will see the internet has changed everybody’s
opportunity for brand but selling is hustle.
– Yeah. – Selling is hustle. – You got to back it
up with the deals too. – For sure. – My advice to anyone new in
anything especially real estate or sales is to be not eccentric as long as authentic. It has to be genuine.
Right, be you. I was so nervous when I first
came here, I locked up myself and I wasn’t–
– You weren’t you. – Yeah. Right, because I thought if I
told people who I was and was gay came from Sweden all the
thing that I do today I would never be hired or fired
or all of those things. Now, reality TV in some ways
taught me the the hard way because I’m allowed
to be this crazy guy. So, anyway, in the beginning if
it’s 60,000 sales real estate agents in Manhattan
just be you and own it. Everybody loves to see
somebody who is authentic. That’s my, that’s
branding to me. – Staphon, I’m going to make you
do a little work which will make this episode come out a little
later but before 9 PM Eastern. I want you to show some clips… We have all these
video interns now. I want you to show
four or five clips from episode 12, 19, 22
of Wine Library TV. I was running a very large wine
shop and I had these very high end clients who were spending
400 or $500,000 a year on wine so think about that and the first 40 or 50,
the first 80, I actually know the number, the first 80
episodes of my wine show I was very reserved. Hey guys, it’s me. Gary Vaynerchuk Wine Library TV. Hello everybody and welcome to a wonderful episode of
Wine Library TV. I’m your host Gary Vaynerchuk. Hello everybody and welcome to an action-packed episode
of Wine Library TV. I am your host Gary Vaynerchuk. – Really?
– Yes. – You’re not reserved now–
– Correct. Well this is why I’m jumping in.
– No, I like it. – The show was doing extremely
well it was early YouTube, the first year of YouTube it was
starting to get going and I was like wait a minute if they think
I’m entertaining now if they knew what I was really like
and I just said screw it. After episode 80– – You jumped off a cliff.
– I just jumped off the cliff. I said look I’m going to
be me I may lose 10 I’m going to gain 100. – You can’t please everyone.
You just don’t. And it’s a better
way to living anyways. – 100%. Frederik, I know you
need to run, talk you just gave I want you to
do a very important thing here.

My name Harold Valestin, real
estate broker, sales trainer, motivational speaker. My question to you Frederik
is in the early years of your career how did you build
and continually contact your database and now that the show’s
so popular and given you many more opportunities how
are you guys managing that? Thank you.
I appreciate your time. – In the very beginning of my
career once again I sat all by myself I had no one
helping me no one mentoring– – Did you work at a firm? – Yeah, a very small firm
with six agents in West Chelsea. I came off the shrimp
boat not knowing anything– – What made you come here? You just knew? – Yeah, I knew because I
came here when I was 10. – Tasted it. – I was so in love with the
energy and the neon and the danger and the–
– Game. – Not so much the
money the whole thing. I come from Sweden it’s very
calm and beautiful and old. No, my family is there.
I love it. I come back. But I mean New York.
You know? So for 20 years I was
frustrated not living here so I came, then finally bam. – So in the early years
you’re in a small place. – I was by myself–
– learning the craft. – Yeah, I think I never
really had a database to answer the question. I never and I need
to be better at that. I don’t, what I do is I see
every single person that I meet including you because you’re
gonna buy your next apartment from me as a potential
commission check walking around with little four legs unsigned. – That’s what I am.
– Exactly, that’s what you are. Every person it’s
an opportunity. – I’m a big one. – My first open house all these
people that came in I just turn them over into new
clients and listing inventory. I’m so scared, I know in my
heart, that this is the last month, my prime, it’s over. Last year was the best year. That’s how I feel.
Do you like that? – Always. – Yes and I wake up eery
morning like I’m going down. – You’re only as good
as your last at-bat. – Yes. I need to (growls).
What? What’s so funny? – I fucking love it.
– Okay, good. – I want to growl too. I just got to figure out how
I’m going to say (growls) I gotta find, you know what?
I think that’s right. To me, I never think anything
that I’ve accomplished yesterday means anything for tomorrow. – Yes, exactly. You’re never cooler
than your last deal. Video, whatever. – 100%. 100%. – [India] Last one?
– Yes.