Gary Vaynerchuk's Long-Term Business Strategy To Buy The Jets

I put out good content for the sake of putting out good content. I built VaynerMedia in 2011 to take advantage of K Swiss or this. I never and still don't anticipate having 6 million people on it. 5.5 million people on Instagram convert, which is actually why I think it works. I'm comfortable asking my audience to like. My whole pitch is very simple. If you wear sneakers, if you drink wine, I'd love for you to consider buying mine versus buying someone else's, but it's amazing. The reason I'm so happy is the value I've brought versus the return on my investment in what I've gotten is a terrible deal. Like the people that are hucksters that I make fun of who are just converting their audience from day one, they're killing me in the short term. But I'm not playing for money. I want my audience to show up at my funeral. I mean that. I don't need their fucking money for my wine and my sneakers. I have a marketing capability. I'm gonna sell way more empathy wine to people that have never heard of me than to the audience that has extracted enormous value out of me.

So is the play, then, for something like empathy? It was really building VaynerMedia. That was the play. In order to put something like empathy on the map.

Correct. Or the brands I buy in the future. And I think this is gonna make sense to you, because what I just gave you is the 201 of the aha. That you understand of the 101 of me versus a lot of people that look like me. Somewhere along the line, you're like, gary's playing this slightly different than the other guys and girls that look like him.

Yep.

Right?

Absolutely.

I'm now giving you. And in three years, another thing's gonna happen. You're like, fuck. I actually fully believe right now you believe me 92%. I mean, it. I understand it. But eventually you'll understand it 100%. Only because it's my truth, how much value I've given away, especially the last two years, and how big my audience has become. It's a joke. I should be sold out of all 30,000 cases. I'm not. Because it's not how humans act. Humans do not feel a sense of responsibility to deliver back to somebody. This is why I keep telling everybody, you want to be happy. Give without expectation.

You want to.

You want to be super unhappy. Think you're getting something for your actions. You want to get really unhappy. Do shit for the sake of Something else happening, which is what everybody does. I watch people game me every day. The problem is they don't understand that I understand what they're doing.

I'm having what we call a braingasm here@capitalism.com and it's actually a bit of a humbling braingasm because my next question for you is, I want to. Wanted to lay out my strategy. And I can sit here and tell you, like, I've been putting out podcast content specifically for six or seven years and written content even longer than that, and my audience is still fairly, fairly small. I have like 15,000 Instagram followers, 75,000 YouTube. So it's fairly humble. But every day I'm recognized on the street by people who come up to me and say, I built a seven figure business because of your free content, the free stuff. And so part of my question is, I feel like there must be something a little bit off in the strategy. But immediately after hearing you say that, it was like, actually, there's just an expectation there that by me putting out good stuff, I just expect people to do something for me.

That's right. And I think that I understand that that may happen. I know there's plenty of people who bought nine cases, three subscriptions, because they're the kind of person that was like, hmm. It's obvious to me that Gary's pushing hard. Let me take a step back. I've literally made $4 million cause of this guy. I could probably throw him 2,100 bucks. Fuck it. I'm going to. It's gonna make me feel good. And maybe if I tell him, he'll like my post or make like, I just don't have expectations. I don't know what else to tell you. Like, I don't think it's a customer's responsibility to do anything, and I don't do anything. Like, it's funny. Even the way you say strategy. It's funny what my brain's doing.

Tell me.

My strategy is to not expect anything from these people. You know, like, my strategy wasn't like, I held my breath longer than other people. Thus I got a bigger. I think that's what people think right now.

Yeah. Yeah.

If you ask me what I think is happening in the culture right now, you're biting. I think people like, oh, Gary was just more patient than us. We had funnels and masterminds and products. He was just smart. He waited a long little longer, but now he's going in for the kill. I'm not going. There is no killer.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have built VaynerMedia. Like I keep telling people. Like, hey, I understand what you're assuming. Please look at my actions. Like, if I just wanted to, I would have just built my own audience. Like, I would have built 53 million followers. The fuck am I doing running a company that is client service? This is a stupid fucking business.

So I think people, I think what's happening right now is the more mature version is in 2009, 10, 11, people are like, here comes the fucking cliche shit. Then it didn't come. They're like, oh, Gary's doing a little different now. They've seen K Swiss and empathy. They're like, aha. And I'm like, eh, look harder, look harder. No, I think the person who can build a framework that doesn't look to monetize their audience wins. You know, much cynicism I have for churches and temples and mosques where it's actually just a business.

I went to school to be a.

Pastor, so like, I look at this. It didn't happen, by the way. You know, I think people. Look, my thing is like, giving is giving and asking is. I'm unbelievably comfortable making a post on Instagram that says, if I've ever brought you fucking value, buy three fucking cases. I'm super comfortable. But here's the best part. 24 hours later, when we've only sold 19 cases, after everything, 5.5 million of it, I don't give a fuck. I'm grateful for the 19, not pissed as shit that it should have been 40,000 cases.

Can I ask, if you only sell 19, what do you do to fix that business? Can I pour more of this?

Well, here's the beauty. The business empathy is built on VaynerMedia. Like, I'm gonna run ads, I'm gonna do creative.

You're build it like you would build any other business. And Gary Vee gets to be an amplifier.

Maybe Gary Vaynerchu or knock. Correct. Gary Vaynerchuk built Wine Library. There was no Gary Vee. People forget Gary Vaynerchuk is building VaynerMedia. If you think the fucking CEO of SAP gives a fuck that I have followers on Instagram when they're writing these million dollar checks, they don't give a fuck.

That's my big braingasm of today.

Got it.

Yeah. Thank you for that.

What's happening right now. And I think you're gonna get it. Cause I've been listening to. I remember very carefully our dinner, and I saw like, I'm like, okay, he's getting it.

I'd love to hear what you perceive.

I perceive that the guy I met on stage, to the guy I had dinner with in the club to the guy that's sitting here, is evolving more in the school of me versus going the other way. And I've also met kids that were exactly like you at the time that I met you on stage that have gone the other way. As a matter of fact, I would argue right now in the micro, there's a lot of people running away from my model who've been into me the last year or two. Cause it's hard.

Of course, I think there's a lot.

Of people in the last year or two. Cause I got bigger, are like, you know what I'm gonna do? That held their breath for 18 months, are getting 19 cases and are saying, gary's a fucking loser. I'm going back to fucking like conversion shit.

Well, even you don't have the organic reach that you had 18 months ago. That's right. So you don't have the immediate win of taking off the day.

Because they're worried about tomorrow and I'm worried about fucking forever.

You said something. I will never forget this. Cause it changed my brain. When I asked you, I think you were talking about 137. You were talking about the businesses that you build and acquire and you scale the teams. I was like, gary, how do you manage all of the scale for that? And you're like, well, we don't make much money. And then I said, how are you comfortable just continually rolling all the profits back in? And you said this. My only fixed expense is rent. And I was like, holy shit. You have no fear in losing it all because you can if it all goes away, your only fixed expense is rent and you're fine.

That's right.

There's no ego in that. There's like no ego in that, dude. When people think I have to understand how like that mentality.

Because I'm humility disguised in perceived ego.

My personality, my vibes, my energy on camera makes people think I'm ego. My actions over the last 20 years. And the people that know me the best know I'm predicated on humility. I have audacity and confidence and fucking. I'm an alpha. But I'm built on the ground of humility and lack of entitlement and recognizing for. Look, I genuinely think there may be a statue of me one day. And I equally know that I mean nothing. Think about that fucking contradiction.

I 100% understand.

I genuinely believe that. I genuinely, in my heart, if I can stay healthy and no tragedy happens that I think I'm up to so much that I think I could pull off a statue. I don't know where. Hopefully a real big one that everybody wants to visit. But even if it's in my fucking back, I think there's a statue. I also know from my statue that nobody gives a fuck. Even the eight family members that I have that hold near and dear. They. Three years later, they're gonna have to move on with their lives. Like, I believe in that.

There's something in that. And I think that's. That was a very good observation by you. I love it. I was excited to see what you're gonna say, so that was very good. It gives me more competency. You're building in the right direction. You're exactly right, brother. I don't care if I lose everything and everybody on Social goes off and everybody throws stones. Everybody. Even people that were my friends, right? I knew it. Even people that blindly believe in me. Then I fail. They don't want to be part of a losing team. Even if they blindly, 100% in their soul, believed in me. I fail, and they're the first person to jump in, be like, I fucking knew it. Cause they're insecure and they don't want to be part of a losing team, right? They want to be a Warriors fan, not a Knicks fan. Do you understand? I understand people.

I don't care.