41 Gary Vaynerchuk: Inside the Mind of Entrepreneurial Greatness

If you've every wanted to crush it in business and life then this episode is for you. Our next guest on The School of Greatness was a local legend at 12 years old by making thousands on weekends from selling baseball cards at a local mall and later took his fathers company from $3 million to a $45 million business with his online marketing savvy. He's written two New York Times bestselling books and his most recent book is all about how to tell your unique story in a social world. Although he may never beat me in ping pong or a basketball game (ha ha), he's one tough competitor to chase in business, so please welcome my friend, Gary Vaynerchuk. Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 41 with Gary Vaynerchuk.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  What is up, guys? Thanks so much for tuning in today. And I'm very excited about today's guest because we've got the one and only Gary Vaynerchuk on today's episode. And I'm very excited because I got to dive into asking some questions that I don't feel like Gary's ever answered before. You know, he talks a ton about social media and building businesses and entrepreneurship. And he's written a couple of New York Times bestselling books. And he's got another book out right now that's going to be on the New York Times list. But I actually go deep into his mind, into his purpose, into his vision, his dreams, his fears, and really tap into what makes him tick. And what inspires him to be such a

• 1:15Lewis Howes?

  successful entrepreneur and really change the world with his message. So I'm excited to share that with you and let him really speak into that here in just a minute. And with that, guys, this again, is going to be an awesome episode. Really tune in and listen and open your heart when you listen to what Gary's going to be talking about because he really shares some inspiring things about what he's done to be so successful and what his vision is for the world. So I want you guys to tap into this. Really tune in and take it all in. And I'll see you guys on the other side.

• 1:56Lewis Howes?

  What is up everyone? Thanks again for tuning into the School of Greatness. Got my good friend Gary Vaynerchuk in with me. How's it going Gary?

• 2:04Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I'm doing great brother, how are you?

• 2:06Lewis Howes?

  I'm doing fantastic. Super pumped about having you on because you have a huge announcement for this week. Well, you've actually announced it probably about a year ago, but it's coming out this week and that's your book and Jab Jab Jab Right Hook. And I'm very excited about this because right when you announced the name before, the pre-name, which was like seven jabs and a right hook, I knew exactly what it was all about and I said, yes, I'm glad you're writing a book about this because this is kind of how I've lived my life for the last five years since I got started in business, which is all about giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, and then asking. And why'd you want to write about this book?

• 2:49Gary Vaynerchuk?

  You know, it's funny, and I'm as well, and I kind of covered it with thank you economy, but what I wanted to do was specifically talk about content. And that's really, I mean, look, your podcast now has become that, right? On a highest level, how we all live and roll. Listen, for all the people that are listening, the far majority of people that have become successful, and I mean the far majority, especially if any of it was dedicated to or predicated on them dealing with people, meaning outside of, let's say in a dark room and coded and built this incredible product, anybody who's been, you know, in a world that was completely predicated on people, has had to live this jab jab jab

• 3:30Gary Vaynerchuk?

  right hook notion. They're, you know, the best people that we love in the world who maybe have not been successful in business, they live in the jab jab jab jab world, right?

• 3:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 3:41Gary Vaynerchuk?

  And then the people, and that's something I haven't said before, so I kind of felt that I'm gonna use that again. And then, and then the people that seem to have like tried and maybe had a few moments of success, well, they live in the right hook, right hook, right hook, right hook mode, right? And so, the balances of jabbing and right hooking matter so much in life. What I focused on in this book was that, you know, Lewis, you're friends with AJ and I, we started VaynerMedia four years ago, the last two years it's exploded. We've got from 25 to 300 people, and we focus on the content that is put out on social networks, right? To me, for example, Lewis, You you do this podcast, how you bring awareness to people to watch this show, you use some of your social channels.

• 4:26Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 4:26Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Now, you, like many other people, and when I mean many, I mean ninety-nine percent, you oftentimes, and probably even with this one, because you're busy, um, because you don't have designers and all this infrastructure around you, you're gonna tweet out, hey, finally had my boy at Gary Vee on the podcast link, right?

• 4:44Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 4:44Gary Vaynerchuk?

  What I know is that if you took the extra seven minutes, or you took the extra financial investment into a designer, or whatever it may be, and you actually made a Twitter card, which is basically a picture, you know, an image of me, and maybe you, maybe from back in the day, because maybe there's pictures out there of you dominating me in ping pong or basketball, or or a set of conference, or you photoshopped it together, and you took one of the quotes, maybe the one that I just, I might not have a better one than this, which is, the people that we love but aren't successful in business are in the jab, jab, jab, jab, jab business. If you put that quote over our faces, and then linked, and then wrote the copy that I just talked about, you're gonna get eight hundred percent more engagement and drive more traffic to your podcast.

• 5:28Gary Vaynerchuk?

  So so what, I went deep as shit on this one, to the technical nuanced sweet science of social media. Hence why I went with the boxing metaphor known as the sweet science.

• 5:42Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, I love it. Well, I will be having a designer do that, so I'll get my.

• 5:49Gary Vaynerchuk?

  But you know, but listen, let me jump in here because I want to bring value to your audience. Then there's, what's the infographic for Pinterest, right? And you've got to know that that's a female demo, so you have to think about that. What's the animated GIF that you put for Tumblr, right? Taking maybe a funny moment from one of my keynotes, but then putting one of your own quotes from this interview, and then linking to the iTunes podcast download, right?

• 6:11Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 6:12Gary Vaynerchuk?

  What's the Facebook status update? And then, what time do you post it? Because Tumblr, younger, can you post it later? You know, you know, and it goes on and on and on and on. And that's why I decided to do eighty-six case studies for the people that are listening. And I feel like you and I have some nice crossover for the thirty to forty percent of people listening that know who I am and have read Crush It! or Thank You Economy. I went with a totally different direction here. This is a textbook.

• 6:38Lewis Howes?

  Lots of case studies, lots of examples.

• 6:41Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Eighty-six.

• 6:43Lewis Howes?

  Amazing, amazing. And what's your favorite medium right now then? I know, you know, I'm using Instagram a lot. I love that. But what's your favorite in terms of getting the word out? And expressing the jab, jab, jab, right hook?

• 6:56Gary Vaynerchuk?

  For me, the number one social network in the world is Twitter. I still think it's the only true social. Still, because here's why, because it's the only true social network. It's the only place that when I, let's use the, you know, let's use the hashtag Lewis and Gary for this interview, right? So I've created that now because now I'll be able to find twenty, eighteen, eight hundred. I have no idea how many people decide to jump in and use it and say, hey, good podcast, guys. But I can now jump in and say, thank you. And they'll see that. And then, you know, and not every time because Twitter is a fire hose, but it creates an actual relationship. Everything else is a content push. I mean, Instagram is like newspaper and magazine advertising.

• 7:35Gary Vaynerchuk?

  You can put an awesome photo, people can reply and you can jump into the, you know, replies and engage with them. But it doesn't continue the conversation, right? Even if you did great community management, Lewis, on your picture and jumped in and said, thanks, Craig, thanks, Sally, thanks, Susan. You know, people aren't in a place where they go back to that and then keep it going. And so I love the cocktail party. I love actually engaging and Twitter allows me to do that. That being said, I think Instagram is the single most important social network right now because it's growing. There's a science to actually doing the pictures. I'm a big believer in it. I'm a big fan of it. It's, it's very, very important. And I covered all the ones.

• 8:16Gary Vaynerchuk?

  And I'll cup, and I covered all the ones that I think, you know, most people should be paying attention to this book. I gave case studies for five of them, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram. And then I covered Vine, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Google Plus in it.

• 8:33Lewis Howes?

  Love it. I love it. Now, I know you cover a lot of this in your book and I'm going to advise everyone to go out and buy it. And I'll give them all the information at the end of this, but for an entrepreneur who's got a great idea, maybe probably a couple of years after college, got a great idea. Really wants to grow his business online, struggling, having trouble building an audience, doesn't have a lot of money to really put into the design that you're talking about. Uh, and all these different, uh, you know, infographics and cards and things like that. What's something that they can do a lot, you know, I'm assuming a lot of it's going to be hustle, but what's something they can do to kind of like have a successful, just a nice business and get by, uh, with something that's worth talking about. What's something they can do, kind of like a crash course?

• 9:17Gary Vaynerchuk?

  So taking a step out, not going as detailed for jab, jab, jab, right, but going into crush it mantra, or, you know, knowing your audience. So I'll, I'll go there. Um, you know, I, I think the first step, to be honest with you, Louis, is really knowing oneself, right? I met you a long time ago. And well, in Ohio, maybe we were driving around or St. Louis, right? Having around, right? We spent some time together and, you know, it was just very obvious to me, and I think you had good self-awareness about this, that you were a likable, good guy and you had good people skills and that was your advantage. Uh, you know, and that was something that was going to help you, not super different than me. You're just a little bit better looking. I think for me, I think for me, the biggest thing that I think

• 9:59Gary Vaynerchuk?

  people need to really think about is what's their strength? You know, listen, one of the reasons I always talk about hustle is I'm going to say it right now and I'm not scared. I just, I'm, I'm just not scared to say this. I don't think anybody can outwork me. It's just, it just hasn't happened yet, you know? Like I just don't see that person, you know? And so you could tie me, but you know, I just don't think, you know, and so I've gone all in on that, right? I've taken my work ethic, my natural lack of need to drink or eat in any 18 hour period, and I've used that to my advantage. And so I would tell anybody, listen now, do two things, do two very important things. One, really think about what you're great at. And if you can't figure it out, ask people around you what they think you're good at. And number two,

• 10:44Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Surround yourself with other winning players. The number one thing, if you're struggling and if you're not grounded to a certain place, meaning you don't have school, or you don't have to support your parents, or you don't have a child to support, or you're not so infatuingly in love that you can't move, I would literally pick up and move and email the 25 mentors or crews of people that you respect and try to get down there, up there, left to there, right to there. Surrounding yourself with other winning players is a huge play. Listen, I pay attention to everything. I think that was one of your successful moves, Lewis. I think you went out of your way to surround yourself with other people.

• 11:26Gary Vaynerchuk?

  You, seeing me in my crush days as I was popping, you recognized there was something there. It takes a talent to understand who's good, who's not. And then you offered to help me get people to my St. Louis book signing. You had peeps there. You drove me around. You, in essence, overall, jacked to basically drive and create a relationship. We met, you know, then at Summit, we'd see each other to vote. We played some sports against each other. Again, most of you have seen Lewis versus me. He's won most of those. But we start building a relationship, right? We start building a relationship. And, you know, I've always been there for you if I could be a help. And that just becomes the game, right? And so, I, from taking it, again, I wrote the Social Media 301 book. That's what this is.

• 12:09Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Like, if you have no interest in nerding it out and being the best at content on the internet, the book's not for you. If you're looking for an overall thesis of business, that was more crush it, that was more thank you economy. This answer is more that overall thing. But I know the two things that I just said right now would help an obnoxious amount of the percentage of the people that are listening to this right now. And I, you know, I hope one or two, again, I'm about to say this, I hope one or two of them take me up on that and decide to do that. Because the truth is, it's only going to be one or two. Every one of my assistants, Phil Toronto, now Nate, who's the CEO of the book, you've watched this, Lewis, as a friend. My assistants go on for big careers. They take less money, they have other opportunities, but they want to be around me, and that becomes their opportunity. They get that mentorship.

• 12:54Gary Vaynerchuk?

  You can do it that way, or you can get into a crew and surround yourself with those kind of people.

• 13:00Lewis Howes?

  Who did you hang out with when you were kind of getting started in your, I guess, well, you're getting started earlier on, but kind of in your mid

• 13:07Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I'm a little bit, yeah, I'm a little bit of a different dude, right? I mean, at twenty five, I already have a thirty million dollar wine business. I mean, I started at fourteen, I, I am a raw entrepreneur. So I was doing this at twelve, I mean, truly, and you know that, I mean, I was really doing this, right? I was doing this at twelve, thirteen, fourteen. Instead of like trying to hook up with chicks, I was finding like, I was trying, I was finding nerds in high school that were business people and selling baseball cards in malls. And, you know, like, I was, I, I did this a long time ago, but it was still the truth. You know, I found my tribe, my crew, and I, and I, you know, I gave up things. And everybody has to give up things if you want to achieve certain things. And so that's, you know, that's not my story.

• 13:48Gary Vaynerchuk?

  On the flip side, I've had this virtual crew because I, it's one of the things I've tried to do, and it's one of the things I'm proud of. I think I've done a much better job engaging and bringing value to people on Twitter than a lot of my contemporaries.

• 14:02Lewis Howes?

  So who were the people you were hanging out with when kind of like the online world, when you saw the online world of making money online was a huge opportunity? What were the people that you surrounded yourself with?

• 14:12Gary Vaynerchuk?

  The person that most I focused on, and, and there was two people I think that are mainly influential, and one was Eric Katner, who's my lead developer at Wine Library. He was just, you know, he's a developer, he's not a business money-making guy, anything but, he's actually anti that, he's romantic at some levels. But he was very smart about the internet, he was teaching me about these thought leaders. I never went down kind of an internet marketing route, I was already a marketer. I went down a different route, I need to learn the technology. I didn't need the, the marketing stuff, that was in my blood. So the other guy was Kevin Rose, probably, you know, uh, dig.com was like the darling site of two thousand and six. I saw a lot of me and him, and him and me, he was hustling, he was charismatic, he was,

• 14:55Gary Vaynerchuk?

  he was a good communicator, he had the, you know, he had the video blog, Dignation, which is one of the only ten to twenty video blogs that existed before Wine Library TV. And so I would say those two people.

• 15:07Lewis Howes?

  And who's your mentor now?

• 15:11Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I mean, Neil, I've never, you know, this is, this is, when I give this answer, I hope everybody listens and understands. This is me outwardly admitting to a weakness. I don't have one. And, and I have one in my mom and dad. But I'm very insular. You know, Louis, one day, ask, I know you and AJ have boys too. Ask AJ one day how I roll. I'm very like, I'm like a cocoon, right? Like I go into my own ball. And, uh, and I'm more into like focusing on what everyone else is doing and using that behavior to dictate my thinking. Because I'm very old soul. So I'm not, I don't know, I've not.

• 15:47Lewis Howes?

  So kind of like the world, the world is your mentor, kind of like you just learn from everyone type of thing.

• 15:52Gary Vaynerchuk?

  In a very big way, Louis.

• 15:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:54Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I feel like, and even people that learn from me, that I learn from them in the way they've incorporated what I do, right? I mean, I watch all of you guys that have like come out from that school and there's a lot of things everybody's doing well. Like it's funny. It's like fun for me to watch. Um, but yeah, and, and it could be like one person, it could be, you know, there's gonna be seven people inevitably I'm gonna follow on Twitter from this podcast, right? The ones that use the Louis and Gary hashtag.

• 16:19Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 16:19Gary Vaynerchuk?

  And, and there're gonna be people that have nine followers, thirty-three, sixty-two, a hundred, five thousand. Um, and it won't even be about what they're doing, cause I rarely, I mean, I don't read anybody's marketing material. I don't consume it. It's gonna be more about what they're reacting to, you know? How they're reacting. I'm looking at, I'm, I'm in the psychology business. I'm not in the technology business.

• 16:43Lewis Howes?

  What's your biggest fear then?

• 16:46Gary Vaynerchuk?

  You know, my biggest fear is very, like, you know, my biggest fear are real things, like the health of my family. When it comes to business, I've got this. I was making thousands of dollars a weekend when I was a kid. I guess at some level, the fear is I get complacent somewhere along the line. I mean, I don't know, it's gonna take a, I mean, at this point. You know? I mean, you know, I guess I fear that I lose my fire as a competitor and as an entrepreneur. I fear that as my kids continue to grow, this is a funny thing to say, and this is I'm being real with everybody, as my kids continue to grow, I'm spending more and more time with my family and will I just mellow out quote unquote from the fire in my stomach and and create a much healthier work-life balance that takes me out of being an A player. On

• 17:31Gary Vaynerchuk?

  the flip side, that doesn't scare me because that's great, right? Like, oh, I want to spend more time with my family. So they're really silly things that aren't quite fearful at the end of the day. And so, you know, I just want to be better than everybody, Louis. That's the truth, right? I, you know, let me, let me say something. I want everybody here.

• 17:47Lewis Howes?

  Why, why do you want to be better than everyone?

• 17:49Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I'm gonna, I'm gonna explain it right now, actually. I, it's in my DNA, right? Like, I want to win. I mean, you see the pain I have when I lose to you in ping pong on that boat. I wanted to kill somebody. I almost jumped off the, the reason I gave that ridiculous speech on that boat was probably because of you. Uh, here's why. And, and here's why I think you and a lot of other people like me slash why I want to beat everybody, including you guys. Let me explain. I think there's two ways to win. To build the biggest building in town or to tear everybody else's buildings down. I do number one. There's a lot of people in this space, in the marketing world, in the business world, who spend a lot of time trying to tear everybody else down, thus making them look better, right?

• 18:34Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 18:35Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I'm pumped that everybody's crushing, just as long as I crush a little more.

• 18:40Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 18:42Gary Vaynerchuk?

  And that's how I'm wired. And I think that makes me likeable, yet fiercely competitive.

• 18:47Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. Now, what if creating a better work-life, health balance made you into a better 18 player?

• 18:56Gary Vaynerchuk?

  You know, I think that's happening now. Listen, I'm spending more time with my family than ever. I mean, this is one of the only times I'm doing something, you know, I don't know when you're playing this, but we're recording this over the weekend. So big shout out to you to be a hustler too. Like, this is a very rare situation in 2014 for me to be doing something on a Saturday. But 2012, I was Saturday-ing and Sunday-ing it up all day long. So I think I'm working and executing better than ever, yet I'm spending more time with my family. So I think the answer is that's right. And, you know, I think that's why I was pulling for that fear because there's really not much I'm worried about.

• 19:31Lewis Howes?

  Now, do you think, at the end of the day, I know you want to be a little bit better than everyone else, but

• 19:38Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Yep.

• 19:38Lewis Howes?

  What if you created a huge skyscraper yourself and then you created massive skyscrapers around you and thousands, tens of thousands of other leaders? And what if, at some point, these skyscrapers became bigger than yours, but you were the one who built them and supported them and were behind their efforts? Would that still be okay with you or would you beat yourself up inside?

• 20:00Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I would, I would be okay. I mean, it would be much better, some skyscraper that was built that had nothing to do with me. So that's for sure.

• 20:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 20:09Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Um, and listen, I know my time will come. You know, there's always that time where you look around. And listen, this is a lot of your own mind, because there's plenty of business people that are more successful, make more money and have more, you know, fame than me. This is my own mind about how I'm doing it. Maybe this whole jab, jab, jab, right hook way, right? The, in my own, my own point of view, the right way. In a way where you're still very liked and you're not killing anybody on the way to the top. But yeah, listen, game loves game, right? Like, the truth is, I need some, I need people to do that. I love watching, you know, Ev and Zucks and all these people build these huge companies. Like, you know, I'm more worried about what happens to me at 60 and 70 for now,

• 20:54Gary Vaynerchuk?

  because I know I'm running a marathon while a lot of my friends are running sprints. I in the back of my mind saying, cool, cool, cool, but I'll see you in thirty, right? What's gonna be the interesting question to the interesting answer to this question is not when I'm thirty eight, which is what I am now. It's when I'm fifty eight or sixty five. But then I'm gonna be curious. Then the the rubber hits the road. It's easy for me to answer that question right now. My concern is bitterness competitiveness overrides me and I'm very aware of that. Thus making people feel like it won't, but I would be not authentic if I didn't tell you that I'm that I

• 21:34Gary Vaynerchuk?

  that I'm concerned because I want to be a good person and boy is competitiveness and enormous backbone to who I am.

• 21:44Lewis Howes?

  Now, I realized recently.

• 21:46Gary Vaynerchuk?

  But Louis, you know what? Let me say something actually, because it's funny to say this to you. You beating me in ping pong and basketball that day on the boat. I would have not handled it as well as I did twenty years earlier. I matured. I used to cry. I mean, I I used to cry, not talk to people, dislike them. Like, I'm a weird dude. So I've gotten better. As silly as that sounds, that's really how I rolled. And so, you know, maybe I mellow as I continue to go, but it's something I pay attention to for sure.

• 22:14Lewis Howes?

  I know you say it's in your DNA and it's in my DNA to win at everything as well. And I realized my entire life that I was coming from such an angry, defensive, egotistical place of why I wanted to win. And I just realized this year that I was coming from a negative place of passion as opposed to a loving place of passion. And it started to shift for me. My ego's really shifted from why I want to win as opposed to proving people wrong and being the best. And I want to know, I want to get, I want to get real with you and I want to hear why you think that you want to win so bad. I know you say it's in your DNA, but what

• 22:56Gary Vaynerchuk?

  No, I think it's a question.

• 22:57Lewis Howes?

  What were the things that happened to you when you were younger that really like made you like, screw you on the playground, like, I'm gonna show you wrong or this and that. And what was the few instances or the instance where you're like, I'm gonna prove everyone in this world wrong?

• 23:11Gary Vaynerchuk?

  There's a lot of things, so there's a ton. Uh, number one, my dad is very competitive. More competitive with each other, which is a weird feeling. It's kind of unnatural, but that's, you know, when your dad's that, well, you're right in the game immediately. Number two, I was born in Russia. I couldn't speak English. So when I first hit the playground at four and five, I was immediately an outsider, right? I couldn't speak the language. Uh, when I was four, a story I've never told, so since you're bringing it up, I'll go there with you. Um, when I was four and a half, five in Dover, New Jersey, if you notice and you know my story well, I always talk about how we moved to Edison, New Jersey. But like there was a six month period or one year period in Dover, New Jersey. I don't even think about it anymore because it wasn't a great experience.

• 23:54Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I went outside and the kids like were making fun of me, but then they were like, oh, okay, we'll be your friend. And they gave me a Pepsi. They're like, drink it. And one of the kids pissed in it.

• 24:03Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 24:04Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Yeah, not good stuff, right? But, but I would also be, I think at some level, lying if I was like, oh, the kids that gave me the Pepsi, the piss pee as I'll call it, you know, they're the ones that have driven me to this. You know, I don't know if competitiveness has come from a bad place. Like I said, and I think it's why I wrote Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. I love people. I'm pretty compassionate. I, I, I haven't worried about where it comes from. I, I really believe it's this thing like now. I also love the I told you so. I love when people sleep on me. I love, I love being underestimated. There's an enormous gratification of proving someone wrong. It's why I make so many predictions. It's why tech has been so good to me.

• 24:48Gary Vaynerchuk?

  A lot of stuff I talked about Twitter, oh my God, go read the stuff that was written in oh, six and seven about my POVs on Twitter and Tumblr. I was an idiot, whatever, da, da, da, da, da. You know, what are you crazy SEO and SEM and email marketing? That's the future. It's already working. This is stupid. I love those moments. It's why I continue to kind of be out there. You know, but for me, like, you know, that's one dark story that I've never really shared just to like give it to you. But I'd be again, lying if I was like, and that moment triggered. I, I come from a good place. I'm one of these people and I don't know how you are. I'm one of these people that will want to break your face when we're playing, but like after the game, not right after, I always get pissed at athletes that shake hands after games.

• 25:31Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I'm not good like that. If I lose, I'm out. But like a week later, a month later, or a year later, I can be like, yo, that was good, good shit. Like, you know, great job. You did, you deserve that. And so back to your bigger building question, I might not be the first be like, wow, congrats. You've got seven extra stories than me. But in, in, in a month, or three months, or six months, I see that kid, that girl built the bigger building than me. If I see her at a conference, I'll walk by and head nod to her. You know what I mean? Or I'll write a blog. I, I wrote a LinkedIn piece because I'm one of the influencers of like six people that are underrated, even though they're overrated. And that was my head nod to Ev Williams and to, you know, Josh Elman and some other people I respect.

• 26:15Gary Vaynerchuk?

  So I'll do it. I'm definitely, I can definitely, I have it in me.

• 26:20Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. At the end of the day, strip away when you, after you're the owner of the Jets and you've won every award there is, and you've made your billions, you've built huge companies, you've built huge buildings around you. At the end of the day, what is it you want people to really know about you?

• 26:39Gary Vaynerchuk?

  That, you know, that ultimately, I, I wanted to affect everybody around me in a positive way. That, what I want them to know about me is actually what I think about a lot, that I've been saying a little bit more, and I've never really talked about it, but I've been talking about it a little more, which is, and this is a big deal for me, Lois, and I hope the people listening really pay attention because one day you're gonna have to know about this event, and I hope you're there. The one thing that I want people to know about me is not something I can say, it's something that's gonna happen. I want everybody to judge me on the amount of people that come to my funeral.

• 27:15Gary Vaynerchuk?

  That's it. I live my life that way. I have interacted with you my whole life predicated on the theory that I want you there.

• 27:25Gary Vaynerchuk?

  And that's it. And that's gonna be the whole kidding kaboodle. That to me is everything. It's the thing I think about. It's the thing. It's a funny game too. You know, it's funny. I've gotten really deep with myself in the last couple of years as well. And I want to buy the Jets because it's such a big goal that then I get my happiness, which is the climb. I'm only happy when I'm climbing. When you ironically, when you said if somebody made a bigger building than you, I was like, good, because then I get to I get to do renovations on my building and build it bigger, right? I love, I love the climb. I actually never want to have the biggest building. I always want to strive. And it's interesting. I was like, why am I so infatuated with this? You know, and, and then I was like, huh, it's the ultimate climb, right?

• 28:07Gary Vaynerchuk?

  If it's the ultimate, because I'll never know how many people showed up.

• 28:14Lewis Howes?

  Why do you want so many people to show up to your funeral?

• 28:17Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Because I want to live that kind of good life. I want to, I want to do right by people. I, I want my kids to be, I want my legacy to be great. I want my kids and my grandkids, you know, and hopefully I get really up there. My great, great grandkid, I want them to look around and be like, yo, you know, like, wow, holy cow, like, we knew, like, granddaddy was great. We, you know, he was great to us. You know, obviously people knew who he was because if I'm already getting the notoriety I'm getting now, hopefully exponentially it'll go there. But look how many people, look at this guy, this, you know, like, I want my great granddaughter to run to one of my other great grandsons and be like, I just met a guy who, who granddaddy met for four minutes once, and he's here, you know, like, that's what I'm looking for. Because that's how I live my life. When I go to conferences

• 29:01Gary Vaynerchuk?

  and I'm in the green room, somebody gets me a coffee, like, I say thank you with all my heart. And then I talk to them for five minutes. And I mean, never see them, a guy this incredible engagement with this gentleman in Raleigh, North Carolina, Internet Summit. And, you know, I, I want to leave an impact. I, you know, we only get one at bat, right? And like, I've already got more than I'll ever need. So, yes, I love the game, which is why I'm playing it. That's why, listen, I need the dollars and all that for my game, my game of entrepreneurship. So the vanity stuff, but I, you know me, I'm not flashy. I don't have things. I just love the game and then I love the game and then I just want to impact people. It's why it's South by Southwest last year, doing a five hour Q and A booth while everybody else is, you know, I'm doing me. I know what I'm doing.

• 29:46Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. And this year you did like an interview a day or something for people, right? You were doing something crazy like that.

• 29:53Gary Vaynerchuk?

  That's right. I mean, like, I'm just trying to map, I'm trying to map engagement. You know, that's why I like Twitter, you know, that's because everything else is push out. Twitter is still like concise of conversation.

• 30:06Lewis Howes?

  I love it. I love it. Couple more questions. Um, want to talk about Overnear really quick because I know you're involved in Overnear and we're, we're about to start, you know, promoting it a little bit. I want to just get your thoughts on it. Uh, the new app that we're, we're launching, you're a part of.

• 30:21Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Well, I'm advising it because, you know, you brought it to my attention. I love the team, Bill and all those guys. And, you know, it, the reason I'm into it sums up pretty easily. It extends what we're talking about right now, which is Overnear allows me to engage with my fans even more, like when I'm in a town and I have 17 minutes to spare, they're now going to be able to know because of, maybe it's people discovery at its finest. And so I'm just going to be able to scale everything I talked about now, which is I'm going to put all my travels publicly on Overnear and when somebody's near me, they'll be able to see. And hopefully that will create the serendipity of me meeting there for a Pete's coffee and, and you know, five minutes of friendship blooms and

• 31:03Gary Vaynerchuk?

  net, net, they come to my funeral, right? So that's that.

• 31:08Lewis Howes?

  I love it. I love it. And we're actually, we're actually doing a big party for your, your book tour. People are listening to this beforehand, uh, in Los Angeles. So make sure to look out for the details on the, uh, the show notes page for that.

• 31:20Gary Vaynerchuk?

  December 4th, yeah.

• 31:21Lewis Howes?

  I'll put the details on there. And, uh, final question, since it is Saturday and my Ohio State book guys are on halftime right now, so I gotta get back to them. Um, what's your definition of greatness?

• 31:34Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I think greatness is defined in contradictions. One, everybody else thought you were, as many people, Good. A high number of people, or maybe even a small number of people, they thought you were great. But it's not true greatness unless you yourself felt that it was great.

• 31:53Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 31:55Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like you're greatness right now?

• 31:57Gary Vaynerchuk?

  I do, I really do, and I always have. And, and I understand how that sounds and I hope that people understand, you know, that self-confidence and, and all those kinds of things comes with me. It's, it's just, my mom raised me that way, my dad raised me that way. But I don't think it comes from a bad place and, and I try to do great things with it. And I use my leverage in proper ways. And so, you know, I think you've set up an interesting interview. Chao, Louis, you, you got me to go some places I haven't gone. And so I think, you know, while I'm on this blitz of promoting this book, I think a lot of people are going to find a lot of value out of this because getting stuff that isn't elsewhere.

• 32:35Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. Well, I appreciate it. Where can we find the book, Gary?

• 32:39Gary Vaynerchuk?

  You know, I really want to support local bookstores on this one. So if you can go to get your local bookstore, that'd be huge. Uh, and obviously Amazon's crushing and doing their thing, so that's that. And please hit me up on Twitter, Doc, you know, my Twitter handle's Gary V E E. I highly recommend engaging with me because I'm looking for it and I'm looking to bring value with it.

• 32:59Lewis Howes?

  Awesome, brother. I appreciate you.

• 33:00Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Thanks, brother. Good luck in the second half.

• 33:02Lewis Howes?

  Thanks, man. I'll see you.

• 33:04Gary Vaynerchuk?

  Take care.

• 33:14Lewis Howes?

  And there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure to check out the show notes over on the blog. You can go to schoolofgreatness.com or head over to lewishouse.com and check out all the show notes. You're going to have a video of Gary up on there so you can learn more about him there. And also links to his book and everything else that we talked about in today's episode. Very excited about this. I love what Gary talks about, what he represents. And make sure to go buy this book. It's awesome and you're really going to want to get access to. The information that he shares, um, super awesome stuff. So I hope you guys enjoyed this. We've got some big episodes coming out soon. And I just want to say a quick shout out to all the listeners out there and all the fans. I really appreciate all of you so

• 33:59Lewis Howes?

  very much from the bottom of my heart. It means so much. I get messages every day from people who are just discovering the show for the first time, who've never heard of the School of Greatness or me. And the messages that you guys are sending are so generous and thoughtful, and I'm so grateful and humbled by, uh, the inspiration that these episodes are giving you and the guests that I'm bringing on, what they're doing for your careers, your business, your lifestyle, your relationships. And it's my mission to serve you, to be of service, to bring you the best information in the world and to find really the top curated individuals that inspire me, uh, and be able to give access to you, to them. So again,

• 34:42Lewis Howes?

  thanks so much for all you guys do. I really appreciate it. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you share it with your friends. Let your friends know about the School of Greatness. It's all about getting the message out there and inspiring others to live their passion as well. So let your friends know, give it a share on Twitter, on Facebook, or over on Google Plus, anywhere you want to share it really, uh, would, uh, mean so much to me. And that's a way that you can give back if you want to serve the show. So with that, guys, thanks so much for tuning in. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.