– 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)

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.

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.

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

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?

– 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.

– This guy’s wearing
a Chiefs fuckin’ hat. – but self-discipline
can be even as important. How do you continue to be self disciplined each day especially how did
you stay self disciplined in the early stages of your entrepreneurship journey when the results
might not be there? Chiefs 20, Jets 17.
Thanks. – There’s just no options Alex. I stayed self disciplined
because I wanted to win. People talk about wanting to win
but they don’t actually want to win and they’re not willing
sacrifice to win and so I did it ’cause there was no, there
was never a moment in my time whether it’s hardwiring or
understanding of the situation. There was never situation
where I thought that not being disciplined or wavering was in
my best interest and so I think when you’re
fundamentally patient, as I am, it makes everything quite easy. Everybody’s just antsy. Antsy for shit to happen
so soon so it came very easy. – [Dunk] Next
question is from Daniel.

– GaryVee, thank you for
taking this question, man. Your friend Gus Fernandez
from Orlando, Florida. I appreciate it, big fan. Here’s my question. The entrepreneurship Hall of
Fame just called, you’re getting inducted man in 2025 but they need to know what
the plaque is going to read. Let us know and which
hat are you gonna wear? Are you gonna have the hat
that says CEO, NFL owner, what? Let us know man. You’re the man.
Thanks. – Gus it would be a
picture with a B on it. My hat would have a B on it
and it would say Honey Emperor. – [Garrett] For what? – I want to build
a honey empire. I want to be known as an
entrepreneur 20, 30, 40 years from now that this was the guy
that came along and he built $1 trillion empire on the way
he interacted with his people. He created a true insular,
you know it’s funny, once in while when
people first kinda meet me they’re like
and for real in a good way they’re like,
“Are you building a cult?” They’re like razzing me a
little but there actually really weirdly like I just
really love leadership. I really love people winning. I love winning and I just
generally believe that I can win and you can win. We all different ambitions and
different wants and if one wants to go and then go do their
thing Mozel Tov, go do it. Go win. Shit, do you know how
interesting it would be for me if somebody left here, if
Garrett left here and created G-Squared Media it started
beating VaynerMedia. I’d be like my God, kudos fuck
I want to kill him but like you know like kudos. Have nothing but
respect for the game. Honey Empire. I’m going to like this is what
I’ve always had difficulty with how much Steve Jobs has
been put on a pedestal. Cool, you invented awesome
shit but extracting value out of people by making them cry and
pushing them to that place it’s just Star Wars shit. You know the Force is slightly
better than the Dark Side. Just slightly and
that I’m fascinated by. And I want to build something,
what do you think this is about? What do you think this is about? It’s about the woman I just met
in the lobby who works in this new building that stopped
me and said, “I work here. “I’m sorry to grab you. “I found out about you. “Everybody that’s working here “has been talking
about your videos. “I watched it. “I’m inspired,
I’m gonna do my own thing.” I can make money. I can get fame and a lot,
I coulda did a TV show like, I could have been on
Top Chef back in the wine day. It was the number one
fuckin’ show on TV. I could have been famous then. Way more famous than I am
right now eight years later. Legacy, changing the game like
creating the framework for so many of you out there to look up
to and aspire to to build your honey empire so that good
can win ’cause that’s good. That’s just good for all of us.

– Like a shop, like a shop.
The shop has no shot. – [India] I knew you were gonna say that so
I put in this question. Just kidding. So why is
VaynerSports different? – Because AJ’s starting the
foundation and I trust AJ. What happens is you evolve
is, and this is very much why VaynerMedia is important. The level of understanding that
I have about the four people in this room, DRock, India, Garrett
and Dunk varies given how long they’ve been around but boy is that the reason
I’m gonna be successful. Where as in the past I tried to
do business with other people and they’ve been amazing and by
the way for Kyle and Lindsay and for all the other characters I’ve jammed with
it’s been my fault. I’ve overpromised
and under-delivered. Not happy for me, not excited
but what I learned was I don’t have the bandwidth. I thought I could do everything. I can’t do everything and so
what you need to do is have people that can do everything or
a lot and allow me to do magic on top of it and look
Vaynermedia in two years did 3 million. I sold those clients but
AJ knew how to farm it. I can do the hunting and then
when I decided to do everything, 3 to 100 happens in
a heartbeat, right? So I think that that’s what
I’m looking for and I’m trying understand there’s a lot of
people now I trust in here. I can open a lot of businesses
but I want to know be smart about this and things of that nature and
so that’s the difference. – [India] Cool. Think his name is Randy. – That’s down to self-awareness
and delegation but realizing that you can’t, when you’re an
entrepreneur you’re the most optimistic person on Earth. You can’t deploy that optimism
against somebody else that’s driving and so what you need
is context and to be able to delegate to a known
entity within your ecosystem. Investing allows me to bet on
things that I don’t control. I don’t need to do that with
my own businesses anymore.

you a quick question. – Was it challenging for you to
make the switch from selling to consumers wine to selling in to large businesses like
Toyota or Mountain Dew? – And if so how did
you make the switch? Thanks, Gary. – It’s been difficult because
I like selling to consumers a little bit more and I did that and I’m selling to
companies second. So, like in a weird way even
at the height of my career financially, power, brand I’m
doing something that is in the short term, a decade, which is
long-term for every one of you watching which is one of the
fundamental reasons I will win more than most of you because
the level of patience I have and humility to put in the work
is so much greater than you. So in the short term, 10 years,
I’ve decided to do something I don’t like as much because it
builds the platform for them to allow me to do something
that I love the most and so this is the path I decided. Builds the best framework for me
to go out and sell to consumers again one day and I’ve enjoyed
and learned to enjoy and found different nuances and challenges
in selling to B to B to big companies but I definitely it’s
probably the reason I’ve been so hot on the wine stuff lately. You know during my vacation when
I had a little downtime when I was had some downtime when the
kids and family went to go get the fruit stand and my brain
was getting crazy I wanted to do some action I didn’t go and like hit up an executive to
expand B to B work. I started looking at what Wine
Library was selling and try to sell wine to people, right? I still love the speed, the speed in the
day-to-day interaction. As a matter of fact, when things
are just thinking about for our team is that I think
I want to start a little shop. I think we need to sell stuff. I don’t like just GaryVee
t-shirts and stuff like that. I actually mean like
because that’s like whatever. I mean like something. I think we should brainstorm, come up with
something and sell it. – [DRock] That’s be cool.
– Yeah, I think so too.