My name is Jenny A. Hansen, and I’m coming at you from Utah. And my question is, do
you go with your passion, or do you go with
what you’re good at? I’ve been doing
nails for 12 years, my grandmother did
nails, my aunt did nails, and there aren’t any decent
nail salons in my area. So, do I open a nail salon? Or do I go with my passion,
which is more in consulting? Which, consulting
salons would be good. But again, there aren’t any
good nail salons in the area. So, what are your thoughts? Thanks for the show,
thanks for your work. Thanks VaynerMedia. – Jenny, thanks
so much for the question. Look, I mean
I’m a big fan, Jenny, and I think you know
this, of practicality. Awfully hard, Jenny, to
consult for nail salons where there are none, or there
are none that are good enough that would actually
pay a consultant. So, I think your
options are you can move, and go to LA, New York,
Philly, you know, places where there are more, or you open a salon. You’re a young lady, so I think you have
time and a long career. Maybe you open up
one for a little while, build up some dollars,
some equity. It’s easy for me to say go move. Maybe you’ve lived in
Utah your whole life, your whole family’s
there, everybody’s there, you’ve gotta be there. You can consult virtually. It is 2016,
technology has caught up. I wrote a book
in 2009 called Crush It!, and it became successful,
and it started a huge debate in my ecosystem
of passion over skills. I don’t think anybody
can answer that question for any of you
watching right now. Really, I don’t. I think what you need to do is deploy as much
self-awareness as possible. I do believe,
it’s why I wrote Crush It!, it’s why I’m thinking about writing a follow-up
to Crush It! right now. I do believe that
there’s nothing greater than being able to do the thing you’re most passionate about. And I think that
if you’re blessed, and you’re able to make
the most money that way, and I actually
think I’m in that category, well then that’s like nirvana. But, I do think that a lot
of people should consider, I am of the camp,
and you know what, that’s the question of the day. Where do you sit in this camp? In the comments,
lets sit on this one. Where do you sit in this camp? Here is my theory, that if
you make $130,000 a year doing something you don’t
love as much, or at all, versus making 89 and loving it, that you should
always go with B. Now, people could say,
that’s easy for you to say, because I have student loans, because I have all
these other headaches. I have a weird
thesis that that 89, because you’re so happy and you’re willing
to work 18 hours a day, becomes 131 over time. And 130 becomes
fired or flat forever. I really do believe that
passion works out that way. And I’m not a secret,
I’m not Oprah. I’m not like sunshine
and rainbows, especially not after the
fuckin’ Jets miss an extra point and lose by one point. I just think it’s practical. I just think being happy
brings a better energy and a work ethic. Listen, I don’t know
if you’ve heard, I believe in work. And I believe the easiest way
to work is to fuckin’ love it. And so, I think, Jenny, you
should go with your passion, I just don’t think that it’s
practical for everybody. I think a lot of people’s
passion is to become the biggest rapper in the world. I think a lot of people’s passion is to
become a supermodel. I think a lot of
people’s passion is to become
a professional athlete, or the next great
director, or this or that. I think people
are completely tone-deaf to their actual skill sets, and they make up ludicrous,
unachievable goals, which then means the blueprint
is broken from the get, which means they
have no shot at victory. So, I think if your passion is to be the greatest
rapper in the world, you should deploy some
self-awareness around, maybe your passion should be being around the greatest
rappers in the world, if you have no flow. You know? I don’t know. I think there’s
a lot of things, Jenny. I think self-awareness, I think recognizing
you only live once, realizing how
much regret is poison. And just really,
and really, Jenny, I’ll give you a
really good answer, try your passion. I’ll give everybody
a good answer, try your passion for two years. What’s gonna happen? Your debt’s gonna compound? It’s not the end of the world, I mean you can
always get practical. You could always get practical.

“do you believe we find
ourselves or create ourselves?” – That’s a deep question. How self-aware do you think
you are if I asked you that? – Very.
– Me too. – Very. – Who do you think is
more self-aware, me or you? – Me.
(group laughter) – [Gary] You know what I feel.
You know what I feel. – I think you think it’s you.
– [Gary] Of course. I genuinely think I’m the
most self-aware person on Earth. – Right, right,
I don’t know, Gary. I’m waking up at
3 o’clock in the morning. – I’m texting you at 2:53
tomorrow morning and I haven’t even gone
to sleep yet. (group laughter) – Well, I did go to sleep. – That’s a really nice
question, what you think? – I believe, I believe that
in our book we just came out “Average Skill,
Phenomenal Will”– – [Gary] Is that
your first book? – Third book. – [Gary] How are
you in book world? You good at it?
– Yeah, we’re good at it. – [CJ] Very good.
– Very good. – How good?
– [CJ] Underground. – What do you mean underground? – Garage.
– Really? Self published from
the garage? Like, what? Open up the trunk and
selling it from the back? – Absolutely.
– Love it. – [CJ] And online. – I know. I’m kidding. Have you ever considered
going main publishing? – [CJ] We have but we
didn’t like the numbers. I’ll be honest, when we started
out we had such a big following that a ton of supporters right
off the bat said we’ll buy this as soon as it
comes out at $25.99– – Yeah. You’re like why go
share it with other people? – [CJ] You’re right.
They’re like $4 a book. We’re like, yeah
we’ll go over here. – [Gary] Yeah,
totally understand. – So for us, in our third book,
“Average Skill, Phenomenal Will” underdog we believe that you
don’t have to have phenomenal skill but if you have a
phenomenal will you’re not going to quit, you’re not going to
stop, you’ll be successful the very first chapter, this is why
I think I’m more serious about it, the very first
chapter is self-awareness. The very first chapter. – Really? Because you know
what’s funny about my book, talk about who’s more serious. I put self-awareness in
my mother fucking title. I put it in my title. You got chapters, I got titles. You got chapters, I got titles. – Yeah, you got on the cover.
He’s got it on the cover. – I think it’s a really
interesting question. I think that’s one that we’ll
never really fully figure out. I’m always wondering
was this my destiny or did I mentally create it? I think it’s a very fine line. I definitely think
there’s elements of both. – Absolutely. – And I’m a big
believer in momentum. I’m sure as you
started feeling it– – Oh yeah. – momentum is real. I do think a lot of things like
I think a lot about sports and you see that athlete who matured
a little bit late, right, had a big second year and
then all of a sudden it’s like wait a minute. You know what’s funny,
I started a sports agency called VaynerSports.
We just started. We’re recruiting kids. I’m talking to these kids when did you think you
could be a pro? Right, they’re like juniors
right now seniors about to come out. And a lot of them were like after this one game my
sophomore year. – Wow. – Like multiple people said it.
– After one game? – One big game, right, or when
my homie went to the league and I was dogging him in practice. I’m like, wait a minute,
Jerome’s going to the league? – That underdog.
– Yeah. But what’s interesting what I’m
trying to make the connection is when they said that, when
they made the decision that they could go in to the league,
everything changed. They worked out more,
they played better, they ate better, they went down to one
girlfriend instead of seven. My one man I was
dying when he said that. But it’s funny, it was the
mental decision that created their actions.
– Absolutely. – I got my health together two
years ago, it was a mental game, then I got there, now I’m there. – Yep.
– It’s very mental. – It is. – I don’t think we talk about
the brain enough in our society and I think that’s going to be a
big subject that we’ll discover and I think people will look
back at some of the things we talk about and others 100 years
from now and be like wow, they were early on to understanding
how much the brain could do versus all the
other intangibles. – Absolutely. Yep. – Alright, ET, you get to
ask the question of the day.

– [Voiceover] Nice Tat Co. asks, “What’s your ‘major key’?” – What’s my major key? – I got the reference.
– Yes, yes. (laughter) I think my major key is,
you know, only doing the things that make you happy. I think you can only, I think when you’re happy,
you’re creative. When you’re
creative you produce. When you produce
you see results. When you see results
you do it over again. Most people think they’re not
creative or they don’t have the ability to create,
that is not true. I think everybody has the
ability to be great and they just may not know it yet. But I think that when they are
in position when they’re happy, like authentically happy, they
can build things that he never thought they could so I
think that’s would be my key. – My major key you brought up
earlier which is why a lot of my team smiled. I think self-awareness
is the key. – Self-awareness. – Because I think it similar to,
you know it’s funny, you also said something that I push
against a little bit which is being great is an
interesting definition. Depends on how one defines it. I believe that anybody can be
the best version of themselves if they can find the thing that
they were naturally meant to do that’s the best in them.
Right? And I do think that, I
think self-awareness is just– – And that comes from getting to
know yourself and spending time to understand yourself. You know, it allows you to be more convicted about
certain things. – It’s funny, for me I never,
I’m almost feel like I’m meditating in
parallel with my speed. – Okay.
– I’ve never– – I like that actually. – I feel like I’m
doing it in parallel. – I love that.
– You like that? – I think I do it too
and I never realized it. – Yeah. What I haven’t done and I’d like
to do is a 26 day trip to think about it but, to me,
I do it in parallel. – Yes. – I’m in motion and
reflective at all times. – Yes, yes, I love that. Is there a term, have you
come up with a term for that? – I think it’s Vaynerism.
– Parallel meditating? – I don’t know.
There probably is. I’m so under, I’m such an F
student people are just laughing right now. They’re like no
you mean “bajuga”? Yeah, of course. – I actually like that.
– That’s what I do. That is literally what I do. I’m basically auditing in
real time, it’s a matrix as I’m moving fast as shit. – But you’re always meditating
for the rest of my life. – For the rest of my life
that’s why I’m so happy. – Yes, that’s why you
evolve so fast. That’s why, I’m
pulling opposite directions. – But everything (inaudible)
everything, ah, I love it. I love it. (laughter)
I love it.

– [Voiceover] Chris asks,
“How do you girls stay so “grounded in a fake world?” – In a fake world? – Why does the
world got to be fake? – The people I surround
myself with aren’t fake. – Yeah, same. – And who says you
guys are grounded? (laughter) – Exactly.
– We might be batshit crazy, you just don’t know. If I were to answer that
question I was also say family. We are family for each other
obviously we’re sisters and we’re very close with our family and
nothing happens that doesn’t slide by our our dad or our mom
and they keep us in check and we keep each other in check. – And also not feeling entitled. I think that’s something we
really surrounded by especially in the dance music realm
there so many DJs who have this entitled aura and you could
see it online and in person. – There’s so much subtext
what you’re saying right now. – There’s like this hierarchy of
what kind of value bring and why that’s more valuable than other
careers or other realms in art. I think that’s what, even the
first question when you’re saying what made you pop off.
– Yeah. – I’ve actually never
felt like we popped off. I never really felt
that we made it. I think the day I really feel
Krewella made it is when I’m going to lose that hunger and
I think we have to constantly remind ourselves to understand
our value and our worth and to acknowledge our achievements
as artist but not to let that hinder us from having that
hunger to work every day, to go to the studio every day, to say
yes to opportunities because the second you start
saying, “Oh no, I’m good.” – “We made it.”
– Exactly. – Or “I’m too good.”
– Yeah. – What do you think?
– For them? – Or about the game? Where do you think, while
I’ve got you for another second, where is the current state
of EDM in your guy’s opinion? Obviously it was a that space,
I don’t know, eight years ago, nine years ago most people
didn’t know about. I still think there’s a lot of people who
are watching who are 40, 50-year-old marketing dudes that
have no idea what this space is and they’re going to Google it.
But obviously when you start talking to a 35 and under demo in
America and obviously in Europe and other places it’s been huge,
everybody at this point already knows that it’s so
interesting to watch. It is really to me the thing
that is most followed hip hop as a new genre that
didn’t really exist before. I’m curious for you guys who
are much closer to it, where is it in it’s lifecycle? Just starting, hitting
an interesting time? It’s become dramatically more
mainstream than it was five, six years ago. What is your
point of view on it? – I think it has plateaued. I think it’s hit the climax–
– Okay. – I don’t think it’s
going anywhere, anytime soon. It just branched off in so
many different directions. There’s so many
different sub-genres. There’s new artist coming
through every day. Guys likes Skrillex and
Diplo are doing a great job of cosigning younger talent,
bringing them up through the system and there’s the
difference between it now and what it was 15 years ago was how
much corporate backing it gets. You see with the brands
you work with all the time and how badly they want to be
involved with these entities and the biggest throwers of
festivals in the world, these biggest entertainment companies
in the world have put so much money into making sure that
it’s going to stay where it is. Keep going with it.
– Ladies? – It’s hard for me to comment
on this because I do feel like we’ve never quite
belonged in the EDM world– – Okay. – and so it’s hard for me to
look at us as even still a part of it even though I know it’s
kinda one foot in the door, one out for us.
– Okay. – We’ve always tried to maintain
our own lane while still, again, keeping one foot
in the EDM world. – I understand. – I think that that’s probably a
good thing for us because like Jake said, I agree, I think it
has plateaued and we have this amazing opportunity to take
ourselves on a completely different lane and
pave our own way. – Do our own thing.
– Yeah, it’s cool. – I just think a lot of what
were talking about when you’re talking about depression with a
lot of young entrepreneurs– – Yes. – maybe feeling let down that
they can’t really achieve the success that they been hyped up
to achieve, what do you think our society being a more and more
fame obsessed society has to do with that especially
with social media? – Yeah, I think the whole 15
minutes of fame has become everybody is
famous to 15 people. You got an entire generation of
young teens right now that take 45 minutes and take a selfie
’cause they want to get the lighting right and post on
Instagram if it doesn’t get enough likes they
take it down right away. Peer pressure, I’ve never
been more obsessed with this. I have a seven and a
four-year-old, instilling self-esteem in to them is
everything because they’re going to need it really, really big.
– Yeah. – Because the market’s gonna push back on every
one of their flaws. Yeah, I think we’re living
through a really, really interesting time.
I really do. I think there a lot of
things happening at once. This is not a very simple issue
where it’s like social media. I think parents, I’m 40, parents
of my generation that grew up during great times, you know
we’re not our parents or our grandparents, great-grandparents
generation where they fought wars and the Depression
and things of that nature. We’ve had so much prosperity
that I think if you look at every empire that when things
are good for too long people become soft. And I think that’s
what’s happening. I think we’re soft. And I think, you know, coming from an immigrant
DNA, like you guys, it’s easier for me to see it. I just think we’re soft and
I think that and I think that I don’t want to add to it. As a very positive optimistic
rah-rah, crush it, anybody can do it guy I want to also at
least have the other part of the equation which is of course hard
work, of course talent and of course look there’s so much
going on in the world right now. I think we’re all sensitive to
a lot of different things that are happening. You never know when
prosperity can end. It ends in a blink. I’m thankful for
the way that it is. I do not think kids being stuck
in their cell phones all day is a bad thing. I don’t think
that’s a ruining them. I think technology is eating the
world and I think it’s going to be more of that. I think that when you guys first
started doing shows compared to now if you think about phone
usage at your shows when you guys are standing there, I’m
curious what you think about what’s going on down there
because that’s just their norm. – Mhmmm. – I love when people think, did
you guys see that picture of the 90-year-old woman that was in
the crowd when the Pope came and everybody took a photo she
didn’t and everybody made a big deal about that? You did. Did you see this?
– Yeah. – You did you see it?
You see it? So it’s a photo like six months
ago when the Pope came to the US I think that everybody made
a big deal about which is everybody taking a photo of it
she just standing, she’s like 90 and she just standing there and
everybody’s like she’s a hero and literally I take
a reverse view on it. I feel bad for her because she’s
old and she probably already forgot about that moment where
as everybody else recorded it. I know it’s a funny– – That’s age discrimination. – Of course it’s
age discrimination. I’m trying to make a zing
joke, I’m sure she remembers it. I have no idea who she is but
I think that change is tough. In the same way that, staying to
music, both hip hop and EDM, one foot in, one foot out both those
genres had nothing but haters in the beginning saying,
“That’s not real music.” – Mhmmm. – And I just don’t like when
people impose their thoughts. Just ’cause kids are
communicating this way doesn’t mean that
millennials are introverted. I love when all my old friends
and when I said old I mean 35-year-olds say these kids
can’t hold a real conversation because their having them here. Meanwhile these same kids spoke
to the same six people their entire childhood because
they didn’t have the outlet to different people,
different things. These kids are
much more worldly. They know a lot more and so
I don’t think anything is bad. I’m pretty much and
optimist that way. But I am worried about
depression because I do think way more scary to me than living
a public life and fame obsession is parents telling their kids
things that aren’t realistic. I do think that we have to train
our generation to deal with adversity and I don’t think
getting an eighth trophy, I do not if you come in fucking last
place that your team should be cheering and
celebrating and given trophies. They should be looked at like, “You guys
suck shit. You lost.” – Don’t you think that this–
– I do believe that’s healthy. – But the advice to the
entrepreneur to push through– – These guys are
going out of business. Do you understand
what’s going to happen? 99% of these– – So they move on
to the next one. – It’s not an
opportunity to get better? – Of course it is.
– Keep going. People out there, keep going. – Of course, keep going but if
you are not self-aware, if you kept rapping, my man,
you would not be as happy as you are today.
– Agreed. – So now go that tell them to keep going
when they’re delusional. – You’ll figure it out. – That was the moment.
That’s the bottom line. You understand? You guys keep
going, keep evolving– – Yes. – but blindly going that I’m
going to be Eminem isn’t gonna work. – But if you don’t do that,
you’ll never figure it out. If I hadn’t put all the time and
energy into that I wouldn’t have understood how to
market recording artist. – That’s a very different thing
then keep evolving and being self-aware and understanding
your strengths and weaknesses to create the next opportunity
versus what people normally hear when you hear keep going which
is if I just keep putting in more hours eventually
I’m gonna put out a song. (inaudible) You didn’t keep
putting out songs– – I did until something else
but if I hadn’t kept going, if I would’ve stopped those thousands
and thousands of times people told me I couldn’t do it. – But please understand in this
conversation when you look back at it you adjusted to a different
opportunity on those learnings. That’s not what people hear– – That’s keep going though. – by your definition but I’m
telling you right now that’s what would people hear. When people hear keep going they
think they’re going to break through on the thing, do you
know that everybody wants to be a famous singer, a famous
athlete and a famous actor and if that person keeps acting
instead of becoming a director which is maybe the skill set
they have they’re gonna lose. – I think what you’re saying
keep going but stay focused but be open to reinventing
yourself all along the way. – Be self-aware. It’s my favorite part of this. It’s what I jumped on earlier. If you actually know yourself
you can win so much more. Just this blind faith that
everybody’s entitled to this level of success is ludicrous. Because most people don’t want
to work hard enough, most people don’t have enough talent and the
math has proven that that’s not the case. The bottom of the 1%, the 1%
earners in America, the top 1% earners, the bottom of
that make $400,000 a year. If you go talk every 15 to
22-year-old, they don’t even conceive anything being
short of a millionaire, of making $1 million a year. But the data shows only 1% in our US society
make $400,000 or more and that makes
them one of the top 1%. We have not had the proper
conversation for every one of you guys, there are 50,000
groups that didn’t make it and it wasn’t because they
gave up one year too early. They just weren’t
talented enough. That’s what I believe.

– [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

“I am 15 years old. “My question is whenever
someone puts you down, “how do you push
yourself back up?” – Vignesh, you know, it’s
tougher when you’re 15 as you’re building your self esteem and
your foundation of your life. Listen, if you’re 45 or 62,
there are so many people right now that are not doing what they
love because they’re worried about what other people
think or what other people say. Especially your inner family. We’ve talked
about this at length. I’m very passionate about this. I’m so grateful I don’t give a
crap about what anybody thinks of me while equally caring. It’s incredibly important to me
what India or DRock or Staphon think of me.
It’s incredibly important. It’s stunning though how
anti-establishment or how much I would push back
when they would try to impose their will on me. And that’s a very
important differentiation. Actually, that’s one of the
first time I’ve ever articulated this way and I like this. There’s a very big difference
between what one thinks of you and what one tries to do
by imposing their way on you. I’m very open, empathetic
and quite self-aware of what everybody thinks of me and pander
to it, react to it and adjust to it but for somebody to try to
impose their way on me without knowing me is just
super not interesting. And so, I was able to navigate
through junior high and high school and really not
struggle with peer pressure. I just, very honestly, thought
I was better than everybody. I didn’t act that way. If you go find all the kids that
went to high school with me I don’t think any of them would
say that I walked around like I was cooler than them. That would have been very hard
as a 4 foot 11 freshman that was being made fun of
for not being 5 foot. It’s how I thought inside
and I think there’s a lot of intestinal fortitude to use a
gorilla monsoon term, that’s when wrestlers would beat
up and they would fight like the Hulkster and Macho Man
and Ultimate Warrior that was the whole kind of genre of the 80s, get beat the
crap out of and then all of a sudden and so,
that’s kinda how I am. I can take a lot and then
all of a sudden fight back. There’s nothing other I can
say than you’re 15 now, when you’re 51 or when you’re
91 you’re going to be stunned how little you care. How little it mattered and this
includes your parents and your siblings and even your children. This is an intense thing,
this is a very intense thing. But if I could wish anything
besides health on people there’s a lot.
I say this saying a lot. There’s a lot of traits I like. Self-awareness but man there’s
unbelievable happiness that comes along with self-belief and
recognizing how this plays out. And let me tell you how this
plays out, Prince as he was taking his last breath, as a big
shout out to Prince, I’m a huge fan,
I don’t think Prince cared what Billboard Magazine said
or what anybody said. It’s just the way it is. It’s the way it is so if through
this plea on this show, on 201, on a Monday in late spring,
if four of you to understand, if I could get four
of you to understand it’s just not going to matter
when people I mean… I love when people… I don’t even know
what else to tell you. I’m going to say it very clear. Staphon get very focused here
because I want to really deliver this with all the
drama that it deserves. I like when people put me down. I get off on when
people put me down. Nothing is more interesting
to me than to prove all of you wrong. I love the people that think I’m
a huckster or I got some hidden agenda or I’m not that good or I
won’t be that great or I think too big of myself or my dad had
a liquor store and that’s the only reason I’m
successful or I got lucky or da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Show me. Please, please, please continue
to judge me and underestimate me because it’s the only driver I
have and that’s how I’m wired. And I don’t expect all of you to
be wired that way but if I can through my energy move any of
you and trust me I’m reading your comments ’cause your
comments are my oxygen and I see so many of you. So many comments over the
last three or four months of people saying I’ve got a little
more cockiness or confidence than I used to. As a matter of fact,
I see it in you guys. I truly see my inner circle
have more confidence, it just rubs off.
India, you’re getting cocky. – [India] I probably am.
– [Gary] Have you felt it? – Yeah.
– [Gary] Yeah. – I think it’s confidence.
– [Gary] I know, I know, I know. But it’s true, right?
There’s a rub off. It’s kind of like a
leader on a sports team. It rubs off. One of the great accomplishments
in my life will be the fact that I was able to rub off my
confidence not only on my inner circle but on the
community that decided to. It’s unbelievable how good I
feel that I get to reward the amazing reward that you give me
which is in all the things you could be watching right
now you’re watching this. In all the things you could be
reading, spending time on, time, you’ve decided to watch me. Me! Do you know how incredibly
empowering that is and it’s at scale?
It’s not three people. Do you know how
empowering that is? And for me not only knowing I
can give you tactical advice or in a funny way that I answer
question number three a girl in Indonesia might say if GaryVee
is bad at math and has been successful I can too. Or in this ending rant you can
care a little bit less what your coworker or your older brother
or that naysayer says or what I know so many of you deal with
which is the trolling and the hate and the disagreeing even
when it’s done well and I love when people disagree with me in
the comments section I take it for what it is. Even when that happens… You know how pissed I
was at DailyVee 030? How many people like were
emphatically were drilling me for a bad episode? Fine but after all that and
that’s fine and I agree and we didn’t do a good job setting
that up and I don’t think I set up DRock for success. It’s a genre that he’s not
as passionate about. I could have done a better job. I understand that but it blows
me away of how much venom people can put like
after you provided… You’re only as good
as your last at-bat. 200 great episodes of a business
show, 30 great episodes of a docu show, 5,000 fucking
interview of business stuff, unbelievable engagement,
answering your questions, answering your snaps. Boom, one baseball fantasy thing
pure and utter disagreement, disparagement, hate,
negativity, that’s hard. I’m the most confident and it
felt bad and I didn’t like it. So what do I expect from others? I get it but it is what it is
and at the end of the day it’s not gonna matter and you have
to love yourself first and feel good and complete with
yourself first so as a 15 year old I would do what I did as
a 15 year old which is start building those skills and not
listen to your parents and not listen to your teachers and
not listen to your friends. Respect it but don’t let
anybody, anybody impose their way on you. It’s you. You’re with yourself and
you’ve got to make yourself happy first.

answers that you would, yeah.
(laughs) I’ve been watching
your stuff for a year. I’ll give you a question a lot
of people had was if they’re trying to start a YouTube
channel, in your opinion, how do you break through all of the
stuff that is on there right now. – We’ve talked about it,
you know the answer. Talent is the variable. I really do think
self-awareness, that’s why put it on this cover of this
book, is super important. I spent a lot of time. There were three things I
could’ve started with and I went with wine because I knew I
wasn’t going to be able to leave the wine business right away. I had a business to run so it
was the most integrated thing that I could do. You gotta think about
your subject matter it has to be true to you. All of us have multiple things
that are true to us so I would sit down and first say what
do I actually know. I know how to be a 13-year-old. I know a 13-year-olds
point of view on technology. Then I’ll go to YouTube and see
how many people are winning the 11 to 15-year-old technology
point of view content game. If there is nobody, there’s
somebody for everything almost, but if there’s not that many
people are nobody is really owning it, that’s interesting. Versus I’m also a great
skateboarder, oh crap, there’s 97,000 people
doing skateboarding. So first and foremost, I
would do for the white space. Number two, I do think that
YouTube’s a very difficult game and I do think that whether it’s
Snapchat, though that’s about to become very difficult as
well, I’m going to say it again, musically, or anything
else that pops, I think that using social networks white
space to drive awareness to drive attention matters. And then finally, we gave this
question early on, I do think the blueprint that you did with
Casey or if you’ve got a couple of bucks and can run ads against
people who are skateboard fans on Facebook there is
tactical things that can speed up your process. I do think influencers
are the way to go. I think that Piper, recalling
it all the way back, should absolutely spend all of her if
she loves it spend all her time going to every histogram
account, every YouTuber, every Twitter account and replying and
saying “Can I interview, can I interview?” That’s probably what she’s
doing she’s interviewing so many people and the truth is that
one more ask is one more at-bat. So I would say that. – And something to that, 70% of
the stuff that I’ve done on my YouTube channel is
about other people. Series like creative space TV
or anything it’s all about– – You’re siphoning
people’s audience. – Exactly. And I’m leveraging other
people’s voice– – 100%.
– for me and I promote it. – And by the way, I haven’t
looked enough but I’m going to make some assumptions
here, everybody does that. It’s you have to be good at it. What you clearly have
done is you brought value. When I put stuff out I really do
it, it’s because somebody sings a book review of
mine and kills it. Somebody that has
to bring value. If you’ve got a big audience, everybody’s trying
to get to you. Everybody’s trying to siphon
your fans and link bait you. It’s can you bring value to
that community and that person. – You know it’s funny,
that’s how she started. She started interviewing models,
Instagram– – My whole platform has been
not competing, collaborating. – Yeah, it’s huge.
– Of course. When you’re starting from the
bottom you absolutely either need money, you need an absolute
unbelievable skill set of talent or you need to siphon awareness
from other places but too many people want, too many people hit
up people like hey you have a million followers on twitter
can you give me a shout out? No. – What kind of value
are you offering them? – 100%. And really not even structuring,
not even the email saying what can I do for you for you to do
this for me, it’s just doing it. You didn’t text Casey and
say hey I’m going to do this for you. You did it. – And I had 4,000 people who
really cared about me because I built that relationship with
my YouTube audience for years. at the end of the video I was
like let’s Tweet this to Casey to get it to him people
were stoked about it. – Jace Norman, the Nickelodeon
star, did the same thing to me. All of a sudden got on
a plane I had 7000 tweets the Norman maniacs or whatever
they call themselves. All right, your question. – Okay, my question is when did
you decide to build and why your

Looks like Rebecca a little bit. – Hey Gary Vee, I wanna
ask you a question about competition.
– Yes, I love competition. – A lot of solopeneurs
are advised that don’t look at the competition
because it can drain you and make you
second-guess yourself and everything like that
but I, you know, through my business
that is and things like that I’ve realized that,
or I’ve been taught that you can’t operate
in a silo, you know. Your landscape, you
have to keep your eye on the landscape of your industry. So, my question is,
what do you think about competition and
how you approach it? Thanks. – What’s her name again,
one more time? – [India] Sarah. – Sarah, thank you so much. I like the taxi photo
in the background. You know, this is a tricky one. I think this comes
down to the individual. I don’t spend a lot of
time on my competition. I haven’t historically. But I keep, you know, a
fifth of an eye on it. You know, you want
to know context, you can’t be blind
to things completely but I don’t dwell or allow
my competition to drive my mentality or where I’m going. I think it’s a very fine line. I think it’s a very,
very fine line. And I think it’s a very
individual thing so. I don’t know much
about the agency world, as a whole, I don’t know the
names of most of the CEOs. I don’t know how much
revenue they’re doing. I don’t know who
their clients are. I don’t know what
the work they’re doing. A lot of my contemporaries
spend all their time on AdAge and DigiDay and other websites to keep up with what’s going on. PRWeek, AdWeek, in the trades. I think that there’s a lot
of entrepreneurs that do extremely well by
knowing what’s going on with their competitors
and using that as a proxy, as a guiding light. I think a lot of entrepreneurs
are B and C entrepreneurs and they need somebody
else to be the leader and they follow it and
they pick up the crumbs. And they get 20 and
30% of the action and that’s enough for them. And that’s where
they deserve to be. I think others like me are
super driven by not knowing. I don’t even want
to give my competition the satisfaction of knowing. I mean, I literally hate
my competition so much that I literally want
to be disrespectful by not even amassing
a minute of my time on what they’re doing
because I think that’s the ultimate
insult and I like that. Because I don’t
like you, competition. I don’t like you. Now, I like you
as a human being, like in, when I put my
jersey on, I hate you, but as like a human,
there’s plenty of executives from competitive
agencies that I adore and think are
really good people. But, when I put my
jersey on, I hate you and the way that I can
teach you that I hate you is to not even
allocate a minute on you because I disrespect
you that much. That’s me. You may be somebody who
learns from your competitors and that’s how you navigate. So, I do not think that
anybody who taught you one way or the
other, emphatically, don’t forget, #AskGaryVee Show, I’m one dude,
with one personality trait, with, you know, one life that
is trying to communicate my points of view but I never, and I’ve said this on DailyVee recently, I have no interest in you
following, you know, my footsteps. I have you, I have
interest in you trying to figure out yourself the way I
figured out myself. Right? I know that about me so
I don’t force myself to look at the competition
’cause I know, deep down, it’s not who I am or
what I want to be doing. And so I know that about myself. You need to know yourself. And it may be a balance. Some people are 50/50. It all works if you’re
most self-aware about you. Question of the day,
question of the day:

there is such fun in the hostel shore
but what brings the comedies for you very interesting question there in the
up you know what I think that I’m very basic I really want the people I care
about to be healthy I truly truly you know what’s really sad for me and I’ll
share this is going to be one of the deeper episodes I think it would be
really surprised by how I act when something bad happens in my life I
really don’t care about all this like really don’t like way way more than you
think like my ability to not give up by New
York Jets is so much greater than you think I think that when I completely
disappear for nine weeks a year or whatever it is I think you know I think
this moment will get clipped and shared a lot hopefully in 50 years but whenever
the time comes when the first tragic illness and/or death like the only
happens he will not seek I don’t think the truth is I’ve never done with it
maybe I maybe I rely on you even more and more than ever because it’s my
outlet but a funny thing I can tell you one thing I know I don’t care about book
sales worldwide sales of a media clients so what gives me peace is that I know
who I am I really really good I’m really into enjoy my self awareness is way off
the charts like I just know who I am I know how I roll I know what I care about
you know that I care fan like to another fan recently like i
watch TV anymore just imposing his hostile poses that he he works on us like it
bothers me cuz it makes me sad that I’m not doing a good enough job balancing
the person believed to be true but I know exactly what I’m doing I also know
that the tweet what he made fun of me the next week he did a snap check post
with the five steps to have a following the snapshot which is a complete replica
of the way I did it that’s called following tactical advice so you know I
know who I am going through and so on that global peace always because I know
who I am and my tent is a 90 on providing value and I know that even in
what i mean book-selling when I’m asking them thrown right hooks that I’m always
providing more value than I’m asking for return but I’m asking I might be getting
more about you somebody made by five hundred books and
I’ve given them 400 bucks worth of value but I’m never asking for more value in
return then I’m giving me enormous piece i think im hole with everybody people that know me the best known and
most uncomfortable if I’m not home with them twenty home with my parents the show

by the way you know I think of franchise
business is probably very good for a lot of people when Burger King McDonald’s
and and Sonic and 7:11 of all these things when they’re doing the marketing
for you when I putting that sign in from the store people are coming into your
shop they deserve those dollars over already taken I don’t know the model
super well but I do know a lot of people that I’ve met in my life that are very
well often very successful and like when you talk to Mike he added that guy do it
or I that gal make their money odiaun 79 KFC’s like you know like so I
think the more interesting question is is a franchise business right for you if
you’re not good at building brand if you’re not gonna getting customers but
you’re a good operator you work hard you looking for steady income that may be a
great business if you’re a great mom like richard is for me would be idiotic
become a great market RI I can get people to show up two things I can get
people to come in why would I give up part of the action
as somebody that’s doing that as well so if I was to start a burger shop would
never go with the franchise I create my own thing but so I think the bigger the
business background for fifty sixty seventy years so great way for people
with less dollars to be successful because a lot of the work being done for
you and so I like the model but I think the question is is it the right model
for you make sure you know your skill sets and all the monies that you’re
giving up to corporate by kicking them dollars are they bring you value for
those dollars I definitely heard of people have started out pictures
business realized crap I’m good at these things like it didn’t know there was a
marriage there but for people that are not marketers don’t have to get a schism
seats I think it’s a very good model John
asked whether people on snapchat don’t