How to Build Your Brand, Think Bigger and Develop Self Awareness Gary Vaynerchuk Interview

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what's up influencers here with a very special guest Gary Vaynerchuk thank you so
much thrill to be here this has we've been interacting for a very very very long time very long time
Gary Vaynerchuk for those of you that might not know started on Wine library TV has a youtuber help
build his family's business from 3 to 60 million as if that wasn't enough started
VeynerMedia which that's where we're at right now
and is a New York Times bestselling author just wrote his fourth book ask
Gary Vee go check it out and great speaker thank you so much thank for having me here you thank you you know do
you ever use that title youtuber I don't only because I mean a crucial mistake
everybody well you know it's tough because the people I did it with are
amazing but I started wine library tv in 2006 February 2006 almost 2005 as i started a
YouTube show wine show made me quite internet famous but I moved from YouTube
to viddler they're there was a lot of start up at the time and viddler made a very
lucrative opportunity for me where i owned a nice piece of the company and I made a
businessman decision I had a lot of other things going on for me on Twitter and
other places so I felt like I could give up the branding of what YouTube was
gonna bring but no question one of the bigger mistakes I mean when I think back
to starting the Ask Gary Vee show only you know 18 months ago and now we having 40,000
subscribers in a world where on viddler i had 400,000 viewers I left a wine library tv i left a lot
the table you know if I don't make that move no question in my Wikipedia in my
career I could have probably been considered one of the first ever youtubers
i was but I left too soon I left YouTube by 2007 oh yeah so I mean I do
think of myself that way YouTube and Twitter changed my life I'm so
pumped that so many people followed my book and became a huge YouTubers it's
mainly about YouTube and Twitter
but I don't take credit for because my actions moved away from it
well you know you should take credit for the hustle because you came back in your
your name is huge and maybe even more so in a specific I wanna say niche but
really in the industry
right digital marketing online media social media can you talk about that because
you one thing that people get hung up on are subscribers and views
don't get me wrong your subscribers are really amazing you got great fans but
when you're going and I'll get right to the punch line I don't first of all I'm not even sure how many subscribers on YouTube
by half of my intuition is it's under 200,000 I know that to be fact so I
built my brand as a thought leader as an executor as an investor in this
digital arena and even a 1.2 million followers on Twitter and I've some nice
size following and other places none of my following count is even remotely
close to the financial impact I have so I get paid millions of dollars in
advances to write books this company is a hundred million dollar a year business
it's helping my family wine businesses there's a bunch of wine here by by leaps and bounds
and so you're right and I know that a lot of you make ad revenue and lots
seven figures on ad revenue from YouTube other things of that nature but I've
gone down the path of having influence on the cover business magazines
television
it's truly 360 I've made my money not by the arbitrage of the ad revenue for some of the product
placement I've got about it by going out building businesses on the platform so
most of my behaivor for example if i was worry about subscribers im gonna get a little bit of time to do it if
I was worried about subscribers I would spend a year going and doing
collaborations like I have permission because my relationships and I have a
lot of them I can easily get to spend time with YouTube I spend time with Google
Facebook and I'm not worried about that though I don't say that you don't have
it's the path I choose
but I do think that when you think bigger and not just the next subscriber
or the or the next product placement or how much ad revenue you do open up your
opportunity to much bigger things if you've got the capabilities like I had
as a business person with some people what your capability is is being a
creative and I do think ecosystem YouTube another platform is great for those
people 'cause they're doing the business sense things that I do as a businessman
absolutely I think the one thing that my wife Judy and myself learned the most
from you is about engagement the community so can you talk about that
because regardless of all that it's how close your fans feel to you and tell us
about that and why Depth versus Width you know I sold 200,000 copies of my book the first week
there's a lot of people came out with bigger audiences bigger stars and they
didn't because people actually care about me as you know what I talked a lot about
in Crush it and I followed up a book two years later called the thank you economy I
don't think there's anything else besides the people on the other side
these cameras you know if they care about you then you win and I and I look
at things like the grateful dead or the rolling stones or fish like that on the
biggest bands but they have fans that travelers and care the most die hearts WWF
wrestling like if you look at economics and business my friends
you know you could have one subscriber that Oprah Winfrey and that impact of that
suscriber can make you so much more
bring you so much more whatever you were going for and so I think community
engagement and actually acknowledging people leaving comments and replying
I mean i was up with snapchat 'till 1 o'clock in the morning last night just replying using the new
features replying I think it's imperative I I would never take that for
granted I think if your digital influencer or someone that's
building a little bit of mojo the number one thing you can do is thank the people
that leave a comment I spent a lot of time in my Instagram comments right now
Judy after she read your book she literally was up till two or three in the morning
responding to comments that's why people like her twitting especially during a time when Twitter was like
the thing I i know i mean you're you're singing to the choir here
and I mean we just we feel this and we believe it so thank you so much for that and it works
and what I noticed from you guys from far as I paid attention I haven't gone away in a long time in this point and you guys havent gone away from
it and too many people get a little base and make stop because it becomes
overwhelming look there was a time when I responded to every single tweet in
2008 to 2011 not to me till two in the morning to see how many people I meet
that say they're like Oh yeah i've been DM or they reply to me and I was able to now because of
Instagram and snapchat and Twitter and Facebook comments and YouTube and the
podcast I can't get to them all I'm one human I don't want somebody else to do
it but I do think that I think it's achievable
thank you Mike nice health and fitness totally lean and mean do you want to take a
break no no and you know a lot of people want to build their influence right where
they are and it happened maybe they're a business person and what advice do you
have for people wanting to start utilizing online video to be able to build a
passion into a business or lifestyle first you have to understand and i've seen your guys
stuff you guys actually have she had the ability to do it it's ok if you're not good in front of
the camera believe or not im throwing you on a cripple you don't have to do video
you have to find your medium so for example voice is really interesting to me a lot of
you watching right now we're meant to be radio stars not television stars between
anchor and SoundCloud and smart technology to podcasts there's so much
for so many of you that are shy I see the camera and i want to a i wanna eat it I wanna be in it I love it but for so many this is the right place for
them to be and so I would say that before I give you advice on what to do
on video you decide if video is the right medium for you
for example some of your incredible writers and the blog and medium dot com
ironically and other things that could be the right thing for you but if video is
right if you feel comfortable or you wanna climb that mountain ship away get
better at it I don't think there's any bigger better medium absolutely for
people wanting to get into this they decide this is what they want to do or
current youtubers are online video influencers what what do you see happening as some
of the biggest opportunities both now and in the future
snapchat and musical.ly for everybody who's watching it was very important you
gotta start creating content gotta build a presence number two a lot of you are missing this and i talk to
alot of people on snapchat on vine on Instagram and on YouTube and a lot of
people I know a lot of you don't know who i am but for those that do just like you like you a lot people come to me for
advice because they know that I can 360 their business not just what they're
doing
there's a misunderstanding I'm really glad we get this moment on the show
thinking about who's probably watching this is the world
graduate Hollywood you graduate the television guys this is the television
the television is radio and its 1965 that's what makes you human human yes but it's
weird the world going where people are going to consume and so too many people
become big on YouTube and want to go to Hollywood without realizing they're
Hollywood and hollywood needs to come to them and so you need to take back to
leveraging realize you're on the right side of history if you plan on doing
this for the next 48 to 72 months for 4 to 6 years right then to stay in this device
but win in all the channels if you think the way I do this is the television it's nineteen sixties
and YouTube Instagram snapchat and Facebook
ABC NBC CBS and if you become a star on all those networks well then you will win
one of the things that you talk about specialy recently is self awareness which is a
perfect time to talk about finding your passion but being self-aware and how
important that is to find their passion
and making the decision on moving forward and how to do that look i mean I
wish that I could win on my looks but I don't right like we have to know we're gonna win on it
and too many people want to be a pop singer comedian or a pretty face model
and it's just not who they are and to many of you are leaving enormous upside
on the table by trying to force a narrative that's romantic in your mind
versus what you actually I have can do so many more things to build up my
following but it's not who I am I know that we used to get more followers to get
more people to know who I am
but I'm a businessman that happens to like understand content a little bit so I'm never going to be followed
by the most but I'm also that means not going to sell things I don't follow
all the other entrepreneurs on Instagram they're selling watches and cash on bed and
models and bottles and private planes and I don't sell that because I don't
want to get the cheap followers for cheap engagement and so when you really
are self-aware when you really know who you are what it allows you to do to
stay in your ways not do other things I can't produce the kind of videos that my
buddy Casey can like it's just not Who I am and so you stay in my daily vlog just
one exhausting episode of me hustling 24 hours a day but eventually that's gonna ge repetitive but i dont care thats my
reality my reality is i'm a workaholic who has some talents but want to show people
that if you work really hard if you want it then we should get the most out of
yourself
not that you are gonna make a billion if you work hard but the most of yourself so i think self awareness is imperative it's
why I put it in the new book
absolutely youtubers traditionally that means youtubers like myself or my wife have
always been like a one-man band which there's nothing wrong with that but one
thing that you've been able to do successfully is created team around you
to be even more successful arguably if you were by yourself can you talk about
how important is if you're trying to grow a business for you already are
business how to create a team to achieve your goals
way too many of you
actually have something going for yourselfs right now are taking the money and buying stuff
instead of hiring employees and building your business so if are knock on wood so you're so lucky
that you make over $100,000 a year which is amazing you could go hire somebody
for 35 young person who can afford another old cliche somebody that can
afford 35 that's amazing camera person
or an amazing editor and take your game up but what happens is young and just not
experienced business people are likely wait a minute i made 100 let me I take that home and I'm
gonna buy this new picture or this new watch or this new car and you're not investing
your business whereas if you took that thirty five 65 home and the other 35
next to are going to make 210 instead of 135 would get you a D rock right 100% right there is an
enormous amount of young talented video editing talent out there that is coming
out of school but instead of getting dumped some job they don't want would
love to go work and one man and one woman shop video editing production for
a youtuber that then helps scale the youtuber because when i was wine library tv it was me and my camera guy Moud
we just sat and people thought it was my Mom because i was like Moud let's edit and people were like your mom films you 'cause it sounds like mom but he was like an IT guy with a $200 Canon there was no
editting and any of you have seen it you know you just film it ripped it and posted there was no editing with
with D rock now with Gary Vee there's real editing and music and this is a whole different game
a whole different so I loved what you said about hiring somebody right out of
school
on my food channel benjimanTV I was editing i was a one man band for ever right I put out onto my youtube
channel hey I would like to work with the videographer someone that edits
right
seventeen year old kid out of high school was the best person in the last
two years he's been putting out content on my channel that kicks my content ass like
literally
the best stuff seventeen years old right and also I wanted to piggy-bag on that
because you talk about this as well they will love the opportunity to mentor
under someone like yourself or to like
learn about you know this new venture or this are you kidding that guy Mike that walked in here my
next help person I'm gonna charge them because his online business exploted under my watch as paying him to
be my heath coach for sure there's so many ways to change value with people
right there's money there's opportunity there's mentorship as long as two people
it's like any relationship I'm sure the way you like it you live you guys like I'm
sure there's friends or acquaintances that can judge from of afar is very different
its not the traditional way specially in Seattle were is not like common of course like I would never tell
somebody how to act in their work-life balance in your relationship or how to
raise their kids and that's how it did business relationships if somebody wants
to go work for free because they just wanna have fun and they come from a
wealthy background god bless I know that or if somebody want to get older people
who knows but there's always somebody on the other side of the camera that you
can talk to there's a line of ten or fifteen people that are willing to add
it will become their snapchat person or be the designer for the snapchat filters
for that person there's just so much amazing talent out there that's one ask
away from your next YouTube video that can bring enormous people to you so this
next question actually comes from a viewer that actually you may or may not
know Alejandro Reyes yes and he's from the Seattle area and he sent this question to me in the city says and this is what he says
Gary since you're the master storyteller how much of someone's story they share
online should be aspirational I think you buying the Jets that's that's a
story that you've been talking about for several years
your audience myself included can't wait to be a part of your story when you make it happen
a great question look I think I think more than aspirational it has to be real
the fact that my sixth-grade classmates can come on Facebook as i've seen recently and say he was
saying this since 6th grade that's more important than if it was aspirational no
more important than you can change the world or buy a sports team or whatever your
ambition is is it's going to be true
Yeah absolute and then I think truth trumps everything and I think what's really
worked for me is there's no hyper growth you know I know in seventeen years I'm
gonna make a video I'm virtual reality and contact lenses that gonna go my most
viral moment and put me on the map
overnight like Obama gave his talk at the you know and that propelled into
these moments right a viral moment and I know i have it in me and I know exactly what happened
in seventeen years when 96% of America discovers me like overnight success that
happen overnight yeah but it's been 40 years in the making and so I think truth is what allows that like for
example we are sitting here today this creates some awareness we cannot be we will not be
sitting here today if I was full of crap and not a good guy you should inspire
you and good things come came from it but if you DM to me and said this is
what happened or interact back and forth more or i would of say buzz off im bussy
no i wouldnt have even tried correct and so I think the truth is the truth is the truth and so I
recommend everybody watching a couple things one be patient
patients with your life is long whether you're 18 32 or 71 you've got more time than you think you just do I
think number two is make pretend your whole life is being on the record every one of my
actions i made
pretend all this is happening even when I know it's not happening because that
person go tell somebody and that becomes a reputation and number three
the truth is the truth don't make up stuff I've been yelling a lot of kids
saying I'm a business coach or I'm this this when you're not I don't think I don't
force my aspiration I've always been ambitious
I don't think the funk and say that I know stuff I I stay in my lane and I
think stay in your lane is very very important so if you guys don't know are
ready if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter or even snapchat you know I've
been praising his last book Ask Gary Vee we're gonna put the link down below and this is just
something I've been told Gary he's not sponsoring this or anything he even
request we're gonna be giving away 25 books that's awesome so put it up put a comment down
below
we're gonna get it into your hands but regardless if you don't even wanna wait
to win go to the link below get the book I'm telling you Judy and I lives changed after
Gary's first book this is his fourth book so just getting better right
anything you want to leave the audience with one life one the greatest thing
that I'm scared of his regret as I meet people that are older and older and
older and I spent a lot of time with a 90 year old's there was talk about the
things they didn't do we are living through the greatest year era and we are also
lucky that we have the internet for distribution to YouTube snapchats of the
world take advantage of them put it all on the field
what's up guys it's Gary Vee at Vayner Media you know this man just wanted to say what's up wishing you guys all the best humbled and the impact
it had on him go buy his book and I'm wishing you guys the 2016 of all time and musical.ly check it ps I'm not involved
in musical.ly yet im trying to invest
i'm saying it because I want to be historically corrected if you have a six to thirteen year old living in your world you know exactly why
do you do anything before your shows snapchat you mean put anything before i am .. no up no to get pumped up no i stay pumped up 24/7