AI + Content = The Only Business Strategy That Still Works | Tea with GaryVee Ep 76

You motherf ckers. AI is coming. There's not a single business on earth that won't need AI. AI is like Internet.

You know that.

This is what people said to me, Aaron. Literally. Actual restaurant owners told me at the Springfield Chamber of Commerce they don't need a website. They're like, people come to my restaurant, people have my menu at their house. Like I'm in the yellow pages. I've seen this movie before. You see this gray, you see this gray, you're leaving opportunity and profit and growth on the table. If you don't use AI.

We are a gourmet deep dish and stuffed cookie company. We've been in business business a year. We mainly direct to consumer. Whatnot has kept us afloat and beyond.

Talk to me about whatnot real quick. Like how much revenue are you doing? Give me some.

For instance, 10k a month after about two months of being on. So we've been on about six months. And then whatnot, our followers, everything skyrocketed. Repeat customers, raving reviews. We can handle the demand and we want, we want more.

Whatnot is working for you.

But you're stretched thin. So we're not doing as much whatnot as we were. And you were doing 10,000amonth by being on whatnot for how many hours? Let's break it down. You were doing seven to what mountain time?

8:30 to nine.

Yeah, like an hour and a half shows usually. Right?

And how many like real talk here? Because I want to really help you. Hour and a half shows. How many days a week were you really doing it?

Literally every day.

Yeah.

Amazing. So you're talking about 10 hours a week. So you're probably doing about 40 hours a month. Let's call it, it sounds like to get to 10k.

Yep.

You do understand the math of this? 40 hours a week, $10,000 in sales. There are tons of grandmas, stay at home moms, high school, college kids. Like you need to hire some people and do a hundred hours a week of whatnot. You know that, right?

If we let like some stay at home mom, like run the whatnot show, she could also like see our bank account like in cash out or change her bank account.

Like that's our fear.

She fucking walk into your office right there, sit down on the phone and go live.

Okay, okay, okay.

Well, not remote local.

Okay, got it. Gotcha.

Brain blast.

Yeah.

Yeah, this is good. Okay, There we go.

Don't worry about corporate. Why not fucking quadruple down on the thing that fucking is working. I don't want to talk to you again ever. Until you're doing a million a month on whatnot and then we can have a conversation. Your entire business is whatnot. Not fucking corporate gifts on LinkedIn, not your fucking farmer's market. Your fucking business is whatnot.

I feel behind and like I'm in a midlife crisis. Just started this content to build a coffee shop in honor of my brother. With my skill sets, I've built other people's dreams and put mine in the back. What's the way to cut all CL and focus on mine now? Happy birthday, Jeff. Let's clap it up for that.

Ready? One, two, three. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday dear Jeff.

Happy birthday to you. You, Jeff, you're 40. I guess he's talking about like still needing the income from the clients before he can go all in. But the way you do that in anything in life is you start making more income on your thing. So it's just a slow burn. It's like you just got to give the coffee shop more effort so that money comes in from the coffee shop which allows you to take one less client. One less client, one less client. The end. Do you know what people are doing on this show and with me for the last decade and what's happening overall in real life? People are asking me for permission. They're not asking me questions, they're asking for permission. They're looking for my validation. They're looking for a push. You can wrap up my entire being on the Internet to say, choose self esteem versus insecurity therapy, exercise, motivational content. The people you hang out with, whatever it takes for you to become more confident. And confidence comes from your capacity to not care about other humans judgment. And I remind you that every other human is flawed and has shortcomings too. And so you're allowed to fail. And if they make fun of you, that means they suck. You know that whole thing when partners are half pregnant and they're fucking teetering the whole like. By the way, this is relationship advice as well. Anybody who's threatening to like leave and then not leave, and then leave and then not leave, like you fire them. If you are in a business or personal relationship where the other person has multiple times threatened to leave and then change their mind, I want you to help them and you leave them. The end. The end with this shit. I hate that manipulation. Don't be scared. You'll be fine. You'll find somebody better. I promise. There's nothing. Here's what I know. There's nothing Good about someone who's doing that crazy shit. The alternative is already better.

Was formally £485, no surgery, no nothing. Did 14 diets. Took me two years to lose it. I was formerly a high school dropout.

Was unmotivated, you know, stem from a very low income household, like very not, not six, not meant to succeed whatsoever. Currently getting my masters in higher education, which is ironic seeing how I've dropped out of high school. And then I want to go for a PhD in education and I want to brand this in some sort of manner because I want to. My career goal wise, my goal would be a college president. But on the way there, I don't know if that's the ideal thing because originally I was thinking I want to help people in education, but I brought it down to I just want to help people who have lost hope.

In general, you're allowed to be proud of your accomplishment. You know, at, you know, communicating something that you worked hard to, to achieve is not boasting, it's you're communicating. And to your point, it will motivate many. But do not deploy insecurity or humility on something that is a tremendous accomplishment. You should be incredibly proud. I do not know why you're not making daily content about your life and your point of views.

Because I currently work 65 hours a week. That's why I work two jobs. I, I, I'm, I, I do, I truthfully do.

It's the biggest fucking excuse I've ever heard in my life. You don't have, I don't give a. If you have 19 jobs. It'll take you one second to put a camera in front of your face and talk. The are you talking about? You have two jobs.

19 hours a day. The are you talking about?

It's, it's, I guess it's the self doubt. It's that, that self doubt. There's so many people doing it already, you know, it's gonna like so many.

What does that have to do with anything? Every day, every day somebody breaks out. And by the way, you're being very selfish. What do you mean? What do you mean? Everyone's already doing it, aren't you? You just told me you're trying to help people. So wouldn't one fucking view and one follower and you helping one human on earth that is 513 pounds and has nobody around them and grew up in an environment where nobody could help them and you have the absolute story that can help her or him. The fuck are you talking about? You're Being selfish. You're not trying to help people. You're worried about trying to get a bunch of followers and becoming famous. If you were worried about helping people, you would not have any of the doubts you're talking about. Do you understand how many of my well off, successful, rich, accomplished friends that know all the baggage that comes along with me being so out there and putting out this content and doing this show right now? It's fucking, bro. Do you understand it's 1pm on the Friday of Memorial Day. Do you understand what people on my financial level and life are doing normally right now? They're fucking drinking rose at the pool in the Hamptons. I'm sitting and talking to you about this content.

All right, all right.

You know why I continue to do it? Because I want to help.

So if you're not full of and you want to help, I don't want to hear your excuses. Make the content daily because everybody in the chat right now is full of shit. My guy, everyone's like, oh, I want to help. I want to help. And then they give me their excuses why they're not doing it. Everyone's already doing it. How do I really get there?

It's too hard.

And then they just. All they do is talk about shit.

That's for them. Right? Right.

I love it. How would you recommend getting started? How would you just.

I'll explain.

You're going to hang up right now. You're going to turn the camera around, you're going to hit record, and you're going to be like, Gary, you just yelled at me. And here's my first video. And the first video is you're going to tell people the story. You're going to say I was 435 pounds, I lost in 14 months. The biggest thing I learned from that was this. I'll see you tomorrow and I'll give you more.

See her next.

Okay.

I love it.

You know what? I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna do it.

I believe you're gonna do it because you did a much harder thing than what I just told you to do.

Posted one reel and I just never did it again. I did it after I graduated college to commemorate because I dropped out of high school and I was a really bad student. And I just never believed that I, I would like, you know, it's even. I want to cry. It's just even being here, man, like, like I live in San Diego and like I live in downtown and it's like I grew up in a place with rats and Roaches. And it's like, I don't, I can't believe it, you know? Like, I can't, I can't believe it, bro.

I can believe it, brother. I lived in a studio apartment with roaches too. You do know that adversity is the foundation of success. It's more likely that someone like you and me is successful than the reverse.

I tell people, I, I every Monday I have this little thick thing right here.

It's like, right. Sticky notes.

Right. Every Monday since. And I remind myself and I try and I, I want to do what you do, bro.

You were so authentic. You're such a good communicator.

Like, you're going to win this. You're going to actually pull this off. I want you to go to Gary V.com attention.

I want you to write this down. Garyvee.com attention. It's a 44 page deck that sums up the best practices on how to get views on social media right now.

You got it? Garyvee.com attention. You see it there? It's pinned in the chat.

Yeah.

I want you to read that and I want you to watch the, I want you to read that, I want you to execute it and I want you to make videos every single day.

Okay.

All right, I'll do it.

I'll do it. All right, man. Love you. Thank you.

I love you too. God bless you. Thank you for saving lives.

I'm part of a super successful family business, but I want to follow my dream and do music. I know that's a real risky route. Is it okay to leave the family business to follow your dream?

You already know that this is what you want to do. What's the down for that? The downside is you leave, you fail in the music thing and then maybe, you know, I don't know all the dynamics. It's harder for you to come back into the family business and get the same financial weight because you had left. And it's not fair for you to, to come back and get the same cut of this, of the slice of the action. Would that be correct?

I'm almost like the vice president right now. So if I leave, it's going to really shake things up. That's the problem I'm dealing with.

Well, who's the president? Pops.

Pops is the president.

Well, it sounds like everything's going to be okay then.

Yeah.

Is Pops going to be pissed?

Absolutely. Super mad.

Because Pops is ready to chill and wants you to take the president role.

Basically, yeah. He's ready to lay back and he just wants me. He always tells people. I couldn't find anyone to do it, so I had to make one myself, which is me. Right. And I'm super good at it, but I don't feel the passion for it. But I know you were in a family business, so how did you, like, how did you leave? What's your story?

I left because my father won twice. I built his business for him to such a high level, and he was still young, and he wanted to be the man because I was the man, because I was really the president. He was the vice president because I'd been really running the business for a decade. And he wanted to be in. You know, he wanted to be the man again. Plus, he knew that I would never really leave. Like, I wrote the wine text that's about to go out that just went out 30 minutes ago. I literally wrote it in my office 45 minutes ago. So I really hooked up pops, like, in a huge way. Plus, I built out a corporation. My dad was in a really good spot because I also had Brandon, who was ready to take on my responsibilities when I went to go do vayner. Who would take on your responsibilities if you left?

They would have to find someone, to be completely honest. Yeah.

Who's the number three right now? If you're the two?

Number three is probably my brother who's working up. He just started, like, a year ago, though, so he's got a lot to learn. A lot to learn.

You know, one of the ways to learn is to be forced into it.

Yeah, that's true.

Are you starting to resent your dad in any way?

No, we. No, I. You know, I love my pops. I love the opportunity. He always tells me that, like, hey, you can always do this, and then you can do your music on the side. I'm like, pops, I want to. I want to sell out stadiums. And it's not even about that. Like, success is awesome. I really hope I get success. But success is more just being able to follow the dreams and be doing it, you know, because as long as you're doing it and living happily, then you made it, you know? Are you good?

Are you good at it?

I use it. Dude, I'll write you a vfriend song right now for any character. You give me three days, and I'm going to blow your mind. That is not a problem.

Okay, well, let me give you a character right now.

Here we go.

Three days to write a song. It's going to be card number three.

Whatever.

Card number three. Not the gutsy Getsuko. Not the cynical cat. You are right. Not the dynamic Dino. Which is number four. You are writing a song about the mindful Minakawa Woo. I think you can't live with regret. I think you should have a real combo with your brother and dad and say, here's the following. I'm going for a sabbatical for a year to chase my dream. Because I don't want to be mad at you two men. Eventually, I may not feel it now, but. But if I never go for this run, I'm eventually going to be upset. Pops, I'm going to take one year, one full year to chase this dream. And then I will evaluate where I'm at professionally at the end of the year. Bro, I am here for you in my downtime. Even though I'm going to work on music 20 hours a day. In the four hours, I'm going to try to help you speed up your learnings so you can hold it down in the next year. What kind of business is it?

Financial planning. Financial planning, life insurance, tax arbitrage strategies. All that good stuff. Yeah.

I think you say to pops and brother, brother, you're gonna have to level up. Pops, I'm taking a year. I've given you. How many years have you worked for dad?

I think about 11 years now.

11 years, pops, I've given you 11 years.

And I need this one year.

For me, my number one piece of advice if you're graduating high school or college is that you should be as high risk as possible. Meaning 18 to 30 is about dreams. It has to be. And I know so many people that I'm looking at right here did not go down that path. Like, and all of you are so young. And yet it is so obvious to me that this is still not an accepted point of view. But I really believe that 18 to 20 has to, has to be about dreams. Because my belief is that dreams are funded with humility. Meaning if you are humble enough to eat and live shitty at 22, you can literally cheat. Like, again, everyone thinks about this. I. I can't do it. I have to get a job and, and I keep going to, you can do it. Because 18 to 30 is the only, only time that most people find it acceptable to live with two or three or four other people. And I know people do it in New York City. People come to New York City and LA and get roommates because it's so expensive to chase their dream. But people don't do it as much in places that are not as expensive. Like you, you have less roommate mentality of like, I'm going to live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with five other roommates. But that is out there for everyone. Eighteen to, you know, 30. And I, you know, my biggest piece of advice is if you're not gonna follow or chase your dream of what you want to be when you grow up from 18, you know, to 25, like, when are you gonna do it? Because you're definitely not gonna do it when you have kids. Literally, utterly impossible it is to actually chase your dreams once you feel that enormous stress and responsibility of taking care of your children. Until you have children, even when you have a spouse, you are still in play in a different way. But the second that kid comes along, I'm telling you, it gets hard to really go there. And 18 to 25 is when you can literally, literally live humbly. But the problem is everyone's so insecure and they want to show people they're successful and they want to buy stuff, and so they sell out their dream to seem responsible or successful to parents, friends, and strangers, which fucks my head up. Aaron, do you know that most great companies of all time were started by people that never did anything before? If you're raising capital, you tell the person, I don't have any experience, but I believe I can do this. Mark Zuckerberg had no experience. Elon Musk had no experience when he was a co founder at PayPal. Like, no, what? Like, most people don't have experience. That would be my answer. That would be for an investor. 99% of investors will say no anyway. This is just one of the reasons they would choose to say no to you. And, and then as far as judgment of others, I would tell them to go fuck themselves nicely. Like, who gives a sh. Like somebody casting judgment. Like, hey, you can't do that. You don't have experience. I would say, thanks, Sally, but fuck you. I don't care about your opinion. You're not an entrepreneur. You're not living the life that I want to live. Because you know who would never say that, Aaron?

Me.

I would never say to someone, someone, you don't have any experience. I may say, hey, go and work for someone that's like this if you want to get some experience to mitigate some of the risk of you doing this. But I wouldn't judge them. Let's do a befriends pop up. Let's. Dustin, come over here for a second. Before I switch to the befriend show, I want to give a huge shout out. Let's clap it up for dustin.

Today's Today's dustin's last day. He's moving out of state. He's a big boy now. We're gonna miss dustin. I know all of you are super sad. I can see all the chat being sad. He's following the long lines of the calebs and the babins and the drocks and the rest of the crew. We're really proud of him. I'm super sad that he's leaving. He broke my heart. It's unfair. I'll never forgive.

I'm kidding.

I love you, brother, so much. Thank you for everything.

I'm sure we'll be seeing him. He'll be. He'll be out there and he'll troll.

He'll.

We'll have him on the show. We'll have him on the show in six months. He'll be like, what do I do? I moved to arizona and I lost my way.

Sa.

Sam.