- On this episode,
ET stops by. Tell them. - With GaryVee. (hip hop music) - [Gary] You ask questions, and I answer them. This is The #AskGaryVee Show. Hey everybody,
this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk and this is episode 223 of
The #AskGaryVee Show. Don't laugh about me screwing
up episode, DRock, I saw that. Eric, I'm really
glad we do this, man. - Likewise. - For a long time, for a long
time people like I would get these random emails back in the
day saying, "Hey you're like the "small white version of Eric,"
I'm like who the fuck is Eric? It's always really funny to me
and obviously in the last couple months we connected on digital and I'm glad we
made this happen. - Yeah, I'm glad I've always
wanted to see GaryVee live. You know I'm saying? All, the guys would
know I would do that. I was good on my own. One of these days
I'm gonna see it live. I got it off the
bucket list, man. - I appreciate it. Now, why don't you tell the few
people that don't know who you are a little bit about yourself, where you come from,
how you roll? - Eric Thomas, man,
high school dropout. Mom got pregnant with me at
17 didn't really start talking to my father until I was 30. I mean the whole nine, homeless,
sleeping in abandoned buildings and my guy CJ, man,
we built this company from I don't know we
had $.50, no cent. - Negative cents.
- Negative cents. - Owed a couple people
from around the way. Literally built this
motivational brand from the bottom up and so now of course
we work with corporate people like Cavaliers with Dan Gilbert,
sat down with Warren Buffett, working NBA, NFL, traveling the world
doing this thing so, yeah. - How did it start? Get CJ, give CJ a
little camera time. Yeah, let's give CJ
some camera time. It's true.
It's true. Listen, I know how much
everybody around me matters and I think a lot of people, you
and I are lucky because we were gifted with DNA that allows
us to communicate, motivate. We're a vessel but there's a lot
of people that make things go. - [CJ] So 11 years ago
I sat in the room and heard this guy speak--
- [Gary] Yeah. - and I watched 17, 18,
19-year-old kids like - [Gary] Stand up.
- silent. They couldn't even move and you
could tell I was impacted and I said I don't know
what this is, I don't know how we
build this into a company, I don't know how we
spread this across the globe but I'm down to
die trying with you. I believed in the message that
much and from that day forward we were just like
let's figure it out. - Let's get it. - And so how how did you
get, so it was him speaking? - [CJ] Absolutely. - So how did you get there?
What was that about? - Well, I got from college.
It was so funny. We would go to these major cities
and these guys I was with they were like theology majors and
they would speak at these places and I wasn't enough so I would
speak at the flea markets. You know what I'm saying?
I would speak in-- - How do you even begin
to think about speaking? First of all, you said you
didn't even start talking to your dad until you
were 30, you look 30 now. How old are you? - I'm 45.
- Looks great. So why did you start speaking
at a flea market or the corner? Why did that even happen? - I think for me because
somebody had spoken to me when I was about 17-years-old and
they literally saw this. When I was 17, sleeping in
abandoned buildings, not taking showers, eating out of trash
cans, they were like, "Yo, you got something."
I was like well what is that? - Was that the first time?
- That was the first time, yeah. - Yeah. - Older man was
like, "You can do it." So he helped me to get my
GED, sent me out to college-- - And who was this man?
- His name was PC Willans. He was a pastor at a local
church that I kinda went to every now and then
with my homeboys. It was just unbelievable. The helped me get my GED, sent
me 780 miles away from Detroit and I just got in a new
environment in college and once I got there I was just like
I was so grateful that I had to pay it forward. I was like what does God for me. I got to do unto others and
that's what I've been doing. Just speaking life into people
who just don't believe that they can do it. So many people think that
you have to have a mother or a father in your life. You have to go to
a certain school. You have to and
I don't believe that. I believe when you wake up and
you're ready to like live at that point I can help you to get
from where you are to where you want to be and that's why I say
some people think you look at certain successful people maybe
their fathers passed something down or their mothers
passed something down. It's like no, it doesn't make
a difference if they passed it down or not. Everybody's got to wake up and
grind and if you're willing to work like they're willing to
work you can have whatever you want.
- Agreed. So one thing that's interesting
to me sitting here, something literally popped in my mind
which is I don't know if you've ever heard this, your crew's
ever heard this, I so associate myself as a businessman, right,
like I build businesses and I happen to be motivational.
- Yeah, yeah. - I was sitting here I was like,
you know, I always say your truth is what has to be done. I think a lot of people want to be motivational speakers,
life coaches. - Absolutely.
- There's money in it. It seems like I don't know
I'm just gonna tell you and then wow, right? And I'm sitting here and I'm
like, hmmm, here's a guy who does the motivational thing. I don't really love
associating that much with motivational thing.
- Yep. - I don't know why I feel
good about it and then I don't know your story at all.
I don't know anything. - Yeah.
- I'm very weird. I just go with whatever I feel
and I'm sitting here I'm like huh, truth again. He was motivated by a man
that became his gateway and he's scratching his own itch.
- Yep. - He's reverse engineering.
- Absolutely. And for me here's the
deal a lot people say ET is a motivational speaker.
Really, I'm not, Gary. - What are you?
- I started as an educator. - Yeah.
- I got a degree in education. I started with the GED program.
- Yeah. - I was just great
at the GED program. - [Gary] Right. - I think that's
where people go wrong. People think that is a
profession that makes you great. It's not. I believe you have to be great
and you take whatever you're doing and you make
that thing great. - Do you get mad, how do you
process when somebody says you're a motivational speaker? - I get pissed because it's
like, yo, don't minimize me. - I totally agree.
- Don't make me into that. I taught a GED program. Like you build
businesses, I build people. - [Gary] Yep. - I just happen to be able
to talk about what I do. A lot of people
can't talk what they do. I just talk about it
but I build people. If you put me in a room with
somebody that's about to get a divorce, I guarantee
they won't get one. You put me in a
room with somebody-- - Or, or, or, or, or
they might, right? Because I assume because this is
what I do when I motivate or try to mold, I'm trying to
reverse engineer the truth. Some people
should get a divorce. - Oh yeah, I feel you.
- You know what I mean though? Sometimes people walk in and they're like I want a
divorce, right? I sit and listen. Or, or, or, or, or but listen, or
I assume you do this, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not 'cause you
wouldn't be here if, you listen. - Yep. - People walk in, they're like
I don't want this to happen. I listen for 20 minutes,
I'm like no, no you do want that to happen. - Absolutely. Yep.
- Right? - Yep.
- It's very interesting. Alright, Andy, what
are you doing here? This is not India, this
is not the Professor. - [Eric] Well, introduce him. - No, no, no, no, he's just
never asking the questions are you just excited?
- I'm excited. - Why are you here? - India had some
projects she had to work on. - Oh, India got fancy.
- She got fancy. - Alright. What's the first question? - 'Cause I'm used to
her when I watch it. - Yeah.
- I'm used to her here. He's not as pretty as she is.
- No, he's really not. - [Andy] Alright, a
video question-- - Your password was crazy.
- [Andy] Yes. - What is that
just (rolls tongue). - [Andy] I just
go back and forth. - Respect. - Answer your
question, let's see it. - Hey Gary, hey ET,
it's Byron Lazine. I appreciate you guys
taking the question. I'm about going into the gym
here, it's 5:45 trying to get my hustle on.
- 5:45PM? - I sent my question to Gary
last week and I hope whoever is editing this will throw in
my YouTube channel here just obviously hustle a
little bit of exposure. You guys have been such
a big inspiration to me. ET, I found you a number of
years ago at the talk you did to that classroom. Inspired the crap out of me. I've watched it
over a hundred times. Gary, first time I saw you
was a keynote to RE/MAX. You ripped their faces off. And I'm going to be giving a
keynote actually or rather 18 minute talk at the
Tom Ferry Summit next week. This is the Super Bowl of all
real estate conferences. I've done two, three,
400 person talks but this is in front of 5000 people. What advice you have for me
stepping up into the big leagues and guys I'd also like to know
when your speaking career really launched, were you out pushing
that or did you let all those paid speaking
opportunities come to you? How do you grow and
paid speaking business? Thanks guys, be well. - Eric, let's
answer it, go ahead. You go first. - Yeah, so first of all I want
to say this because you talked about that first speech. Again, Gary, I wasn't
doing that for the world. It's an accident
that video came out. I had no idea. - [Gary] Somebody was recording
it and put it on YouTube? - Actually a guy
recorded for his thesis. - [Gary] Yep.
- Never used it for his thesis. - [Gary] Okay. - The only reason he mic'd
me up was because of that. - [Gary] When was this? - This was 10 years ago. Actually, the anniversary to the
Guru story is this school year. So that's when I did it. - And that was your break out?
- That was the break out. When we say break out
we mean to the world. I have two careers. The first one was
I had been doing this,-- - 100%. - I had been doing this
for 10 years before that. - People are like,
"Oh, you broke out." I was like, "Yeah, I
worked every day of my life. "I finally broke out."
- Right, right. So I ended up breaking out
after 18 years, yeah broke out. - If you call breaking out like
punting anything that was happy and fun and easy and just
grinding my face off, yeah I broke out.
- Yeah. So for me that speech was to
about 40 or 50 kids from the inner city who were about to get
kicked out of Michigan State and I was going off. I was just going off because
they don't have three chances like their parents, you know,
just got laid off from Ford, GM and Chrysler. We're talking about when the
country hit the recession. These kids parents
had lost their jobs, GM, Ford, Chrysler
all crashing. This is their chance
to get a degree-- - And they're bullshittin'.
- So I'm going off. - Of course.
- Somebody happens to record it. - Especially 'cause, you know,
I'm going to use that as my answer which is when you tell
your truth it's not scary to talk to one, it's not
scary to talk to 50,000. You ask me right now to read
your email, right now, if you gave me a long email and said
read it, I'd be scared shitless. You know why? I'm bad at reading.
I don't like reading. - Yeah. - It's not what
comes natural to me. - It's not jut me it's Gary.
(group laughter) - I could go speak in front
of this whole city, this whole thing. Give me 80 million
people, I'm ready. Give me the mic, I'm going. I'm ready right now. You ask me to read in front of
this inner circle I'm like, uh, let's get a drink guys.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Nah, that's stupid
let's do business. It's unbelievable. So to Brian, Byron?
- [Andy] Byron. - Byron, just go
speak your truth. The biggest mistake people make
and your by accident similar to me, I was a businessman just
going to a conference, I don't know, the number one
reason people fail is 'cause they have to think.
- Yep. Yep. - And when you think because you
don't know, 'cause you're trying to fake it, you know what's
easy for us and your's is more extreme than mine but I have my
version of it, when you're not at any plateau, when you've been
there nothing's super scary. - Yep, yep. - What you're
going to laugh at me? When kids made me drink pee
'cause I couldn't speak English? Things aren't scary.
- Right. - What is somebody
going to do to you? When you're eating shit
out of the fucking corner? Who's going to do what? Somebody's gonna laugh
at you at a conference? They didn't like
the way you cursed? That's the silliest. I think the biggest thing
is to talk your truth Byron. Don't try to act
bigger than you are. Everybody does that.
- Yeah. - Oh, now that I'm a big stage
let me make pretend or embellish that I built, sold a lot of
apartments or people embellish or fake it and
then you're scared. You're scared somebody's
gonna call you out on it. You're scared
somebody's gonna come, you know what I'm pissed about? I had Tyler right now
I'm getting my report card right now sent to me. My report cards from high school
because somebody in the comment section of Facebook said, "Gary,
you aren't that bad of a student "from high school." Only 'cause I they like me and
they didn't want to believe I was such a bad student.
- Right, right, right. - I'm like, "Oh, you think
so, let me go get them." I just thinks it's truth. - And I would say to him as
well, give them something, man. Too many people spend so
much time talking about their accomplishments and what they've
done, give them something, give them a tool or two that
they can literally take. I'm talking about as soon. Don't, I listen to some of these
guys, no disrespect but it takes about 18 messages before you
actually say something to them. Right? So I'm saying, do me a favor
just give them one or two things that as soon as the conference
is over they can really take with them and actually use. - I'm super mad you said that
because you're more right than what I was saying. It's more important than
your truth even though this doesn't sound like it. I believe that 90% of talks in
public today are press releases for that person and they're
doing propaganda for themselves and they just leave.
- Absolutely, Gary, absolutely. - I'm trying to guilt
mother fuckers to love me. - Yep. Yep. - That I gave them so
much that they're like damn. Honestly, you know what I
like about Kendrick Lamar? - What do you like
about Kendrick Lamar? - I like, oh, we got a nice
little cadence going here. (group laughter) I like that when I feel like if
I was good enough to be a rapper I would have the same mindset. What I think he does, and
I don't know if this has been talked about, again I don't read
anything so I don't even know if this is out there, I assume it
is 'cause it's so obvious, he goes and goes on
other people albums and he's trying to steal those fans. When I listen to how he
does it, I'm like I get that. I literally, Eric I swear to
God, I go to every conference and I'm trying to make anybody
that came there for somebody else question that person.
- Yeah, yeah. - I want them to be like damn.
- No, no, no, explain. 'Cause they're laughing.
Explain that though. - [Gary] Okay, I go to every
conference and I go look this is a conference and there's
this fancy person, there's Warren Buffet,
there's Tony Robbins, there's Eric Thomas,
I'm sure they a lot of people, I'm not the only person but
I'm going to go on stage and I'm going to make every single
person leave saying I don't like Warren Buffet anymore.
I like GaryVee. - Yep. - And by the way, that's
not having by having bravado. - Yeah. - That's not having, that's not
cursing that's I'm gonna provide so much stream of value so hard,
so long that they're going to be tired when I'm done.
Bring value. - And that's why you
know who GaryVee is. For real.
You guys got to hear that. Because a lot of people that
study, studying GaryVee this is why I laugh, Gary. There're people who look up to
you who don't do what you do. - You mean everybody? You mean everybody? Do you know how many
people tweet hustle and work six hours a day? I know.
- I'm serious. - I know. - I'm serious. Someone I'm very
close to today asks me about my schedule and I told him
the schedule and then they asked me well why are you up so early?
(laughter) - Yeah. Let's move to the next
question before I get angry. By the way, real
quick I got angry. If you ever say to somebody else
why are you up so early, that is the quickest tell to you
are not a winning player. If that has ever crossed
your mind, you've lost. Go ahead. - [Voiceover] I.K.E. asks,
"As a rapper, what's the best "marketing tips to implement?" "Should I treat music like an
entrepreneur would his product?" - I would just say exactly
what Gary said before, just add value. Think about a specific
group of people 'cause you can't reach everybody. I'm just being real. I don't care how good
you are at what you do. You pick your poison, you pick
a group and you just pour into that group so that every time they listen to you
like Gary said. I'm just going to be honest. I'm like Gary I don't listen to
anything, I don't read anything. But I got hooked on this Beyoncé
song and I been listening to that song this morning,
I listened to it, it's like I can't put it down. And it's not
because it's Beyoncé. No disrespect but it's not
because of what you think but when I hear the song
I hear I was here. So I'm waking up this morning
like you get to GaryVee show you got to be present. Not just there, you
got to be present 'cause you may only get to
do this one more time so I'm listening to her song, and
I felt like she wrote it for ET. - We should find out, we should
activate everybody let's find out if B wrote it for you.
(group laughter) You think she did? - I believe she wrote it for me. I really do. - Listen, I think way too many
people, I'll give you my advice. I think you need to make
pretend, not make pretend let me rephrase, you haven't made it. I don't think this was J Cole
asking the question, right? You haven't made it. So stop being fancy. I am stunned by the fanciness in
the market of speakers, authors, entrepreneurs, athletes and
definitely rappers 'cause I got a ton of them. You're trying to be big time, you think acting
like that is that. You know how
you promote music? Make one person every
day like your music. - Right.
- You know how you do that? By liking them first. By literally going to Twitter, I'll give you something
real tangible. (tapping from ceiling) - Somebody loves us.
- I love it. Twitter.com/search. Twitter.com/search
go search people. You've got your opinion of
who you are as a rapper. Go search people
talking about Future. You think that's your style. Jump in and say yeah
I like that track, too. Yes, I love that hook. When ET tweets that Beyoncé
spoke to me, jump in and be like yeah that part. Become part of the community. Everybody wants
everybody to love them. Love the community first
then they'll love you back. Guilt them into loving you. - Oh that's so ah, ah! Look guys that first video, for
real, you'd be shocked at the millions of people, that one
video has 38 million views. - Fuck! - You'll be shocked that
I did not do that on purpose. You'd be shocked that I just,
what GaryVee just said, I poured in to that community
for about 18 years and then, boom, all of a sudden one day that seed blossomed
into the tree. 18 years. - Doing the right thing
is always the right thing. - 18 years.
- I love it. - So I also said to whoever
you are, don't do what Gary is saying and think that six months you're going to see the
results, or a year. Just because he told you that and you did what
he told you to do. At six months later,-- - [Gary] How do
think about patience? - I mean it's life.
It's everything. - I'm a big, big,
big pusher patience. - Yeah, I'm just saying, because
you don't know the result. You can only work the process. You don't know when
the prize-- - You know what I'm most
fascinated about? Everybody there right now,
how many there gave up a month before it was going to happen. - Yep, yep, yep, yep.
Weeks. - I'm worried that what happens
when you die and you go talk to God, God's like yo, listen,
I got to show you something. You gave up on March 19, 1994,
it was gonna happen on April 7, 1994 and
you're like what? I'm fascinated by
lack of patience. - Yeah. Yep.
- All right, let's move on. - [Voiceover] Jacob Brown asks,
"As a PhD, what percentage of "would you contribute of where
you are today your degree?" - Absolutely zero. Zero. I didn't get the
PhD for success. I got a PhD for the patience. I got the PhD for the process. - When did you get a PhD?
- Last year, May. - Did you think you,
you know what this is a real good opportunity. On a real serious kick, I think
what makes this show good is I'm super not scared.
Talk me through the PhD. Did you feel like that that
was a smart strategic thing to create a little more air cover
so that you had more room to do your thing. For real, for real? - For me Gary, I was trying to
and when I first walked in you talked about business.
- Yep. - And I told you
I build people-- - Yes. - but building people
doesn't always pay well. - I understand. - So I had to put myself
in a different market,-- - I understand. - then what I originally wanted
to be when I started, right? - Yeah, yeah. - But what happens when you're
from Detroit, like I am, one of the most segregated cities
United States of America, I did not have the code, the language
or the rules to get in the game that I wanted to play in.
- That's right. - So for me Michigan State gave
me that opportunity to go to class and hear that language. To get in an environment
for six years and be a part of the rules. So, you can't play the game
if you don't know the game. So, the degree to me was about, it doesn't make
Detroit bad. It doesn't make my community
bad, but there's some things I need to operate on this level. - It's interesting
you even went there. I'm so fascinated
that you said that. I'm fascinated that in your
mind, it processed that this thing could be a counter move
to making that thing look bad. It's actually a massive insight that people
grossly underestimate. It's a thing that I grew up with
in a different way, you know, I came to this country because Jews were persecuted
the Soviet Union. My parents and grandparents grew
up in an environment where they were blamed for the world war. My grandparents, both
my grandfathers went to jail for being Jewish. And I think that people don't
understand that being a minority somewhere, Jewish in Europe,
African-American in America, there's a psyche that people
don't understand which is you hear, you hear us white guys
here hear selling out, you know, Uncle Tom getting away from, it's so much deeper
than you think. - So much deeper. - Let me tell you where I'm
going with it, I'm actually going a very left turn on this, most of you are so molded by your parents you can't even
wrap your head around it. And there're certain things your
parents put in you, that you were scared to break against
because you don't want to let them down even though you might hate your parent or
what have you. It's unbelievable to
me that you went there. That the success of PhD had to be hedged in
your mind through your word that that's
not bad on Detroit. - Nuh-uh. - That to me is such an
insight that we need to have a conversation in general about
people understanding that having something good happen,
doesn't trigger a negative event somewhere else and that is
something we're all dealing with in our own versions. - And so for me it was like, E,
if you can't, if there's certain arenas you can't operate
on if you don't know it. Can't play football if you
don't, here's the thing I hate; okay, so what I do for a living
I hate Gary that a guy thinks he's gonna do what I've done for
20-something years, he's gonna watch my videos, he's just
gonna do it for five months, five years and boom
he's the next ET. - Wait a minute, ET, you mean
you can't register Seven Figure Mastermind Instagram
account and become that? Yeah. - I mean it's real.
- The realist. - I realized that, ET, you have
what you think is success but you get that PhD
you're gonna understand it. It's like another language, Gary, it's like
another language. Like another world. - You like being a student?
- I love, I love it. Not reading but
I love being a student. - Yeah, it's interesting,
I don't like reading. - I don't want people thinking
we're contradicting ourselves. - Yeah, yeah, no. It's interesting,
it's interesting. Huh. I like that, okay.
What was a question? - [Andy] As a PhD
what percentage-- - Got it.
- Oh, ok, zero. - Zero, okay good. Zero. - [Andy] Video question. - What up? What up?
What up? It's your boy Zain coming from
Sydney, Australia and welcome to the show, ET. I believe this is a huge issue
for a lot of people in life and my question is where does where does motivation stop
and execution begin? I want to take this opportunity
to thank you both for being huge influences in my life and I can
proudly say that I wouldn't be the man I am today if
it wasn't for you two. - That's very nice.
- I appreciate that, man. - Z-squared I'll tell you that,
the amount of people that come in and write notes all day,
little notebooks of motivation, spend ungodly amount of hours, the amount of hours that we've spent watching
each other's stuff, I don't want to speak for you but my gut is zero.
Zero full hours. - He said it. - You know, I don't know,
I don't know but here's what I can tell you some
people need to be motivated. For me, I didn't. I got a chip on my shoulder and
that thing will drive me until the day I'm in the ground. I'm so motivated it's
coming out of my face. So I don't need that. So I can't speak for everybody, everybody's got
different versions. But here's what I can tell you
there's a sign in here that is driving everybody crazy. It's been brought up like
four times in the last week. It says, "Ideas are shit." It hangs in our office and it's
driving crazy and the reason I don't finish my statement in that sign is I want people to think. 'Cause the sign actually reads
if it was in full entirety, "Ideas are shit
until you execute them." Where does
motivation stop and start? Everybody's got a different
answer but here's what I can tell you; It's really easy to be
motivated either you've got it or you can watch it. It's really hard to execute. It is the variable
that separates people. People are always gonna tell me
every day, every day I roll up on people they're like yo,
I'm gonna buy the Seahawks and you're gonna buy the
Jets and I'm like great. Can't wait to see you. People are always telling me
that going to do this, this and this and that and you know what
I do, I don't know if you do this I ask a lots of them to
email me in 60 days, in 90 days in a year and you
know how many do? Goose egg. (clicks tongue)
People talk shit. And I don't know where it stops
or starts but I know that most of you, 99% of you aren't going to do anything about it
and that sucks. - I'm with Gary, inhale, exhale
it's like asking me which one is which, I don't know
which one is which. When you inhale, you exhale. I don't know which ones first
which one is second but you're not executing
you're not motivational. I don't know what the other
stuff is you're doing but real motivation I don't know which
one comes first but it makes you do something. If you're not doing anything
you're not really motivated. - Do you think it's a
little bit Star Wars like? I just went somewhere weird. I'm sitting here I'm like you
know, the truth is don't you think motivation comes
a little bit from a little bit of darkness? This is my point, this is fun
to do this in his room and I've been talking to a bunch of
female entrepreneurs the other day and some
leaders in my company. There's a lot of
mixed genders in here. And again, I'm so scared to go
here because I understand where I'm going I don't know, I think having,
being a minority, being an underdog
is an advantage. I can't not believe that. I genuinely believe
I'm making this for my son, Xander, I think you're soft. I think you're watching this
right now, six years now I think you're gonna text me in
a few minutes and be like "Yo, I'm going to kill you,"
which I hope because I hope you have that in you but the truth is, I just believe
that Andy's in a disadvantage. I just genuinely believe that. I don't know how else to say it? Now, by the way,
that's me stereotyping. If Andy's lucky to be motivated,
something bad happened, I don't know his dynamic with
his brother but I think being a younger brother's a
great one, right? Show me a kid who walks in here and says, I'm like
what's your story? Well, I grew up super rich
and white and it's awesome. I'm like keep going, they're
like well my older brother was a star football
player and I wasn't. I'm like okay now right
I'm like show me something. - Absolutely. - I think, I think a lot of you
are not motivated because you're lucky and what I mean by that is
you're lucky in different ways. You haven't dealt with adversity
that much and by the way it's not a black-and-white
thing, girl-boy thing-- - Absolutely, absolutely.
- you just had great parents. You had a good upbringing. Life just didn't give you that
much adversity and so, I don't know,
I want to slice throats. - Yeah. - Like I don't know.
My stuff is super evil. I'm being really honest
with you guys today. I go to the conference
everybody's in the green room friends, friends. I'm like I'm gonna
slice your throat. - No question. - You're gonna go up there
and people are gonna clap. I'm gonna up there and
people are gonna hate you after. They'll be like why did I even
clap for the guy before me. That's what's
going through my mind. - No question.
- It's just not a nice thing. - Yeah, no question. - Do you know why people
hate when I have guests on? It just happened right now.
I interrupt. - You're supposed to, Gary.
- I can't help it. - You're ready to go. I was an was gonna say for
me, everybody's like you're so engaged with your son,
you're so engaged your daughter. That's because my
father wasn't there. I'm not a good father. I just didn't have my father so every day I wake
up that drives me. I'm not gonna be him. Every time I get on the mic it's
like my people didn't take all of us talk
nobody's taking action. So I'm with you
it's the dark side. It's the I didn't have,
I ate out of trash cans. I told the kids yesterday with
the NBA I said look everybody can get but can you keep. So, for me, I say I'm not into
money I just don't want to go back to being homeless. I don't want to each
out of trash cans again. I don't want to sleep
in abandoned buildings. It's the darkness that
gets me up and drives me. - I genuinely believe the
worst thing in life is to be somewhere, grow and
then go backwards. Now, I'm weird because I'm
also weirdly romantic to it. That Rocky where he
loses everything, he's back. There's a part of me was always
like, ooh, if I lose everything but then I'll rise back and then I'll realize who my
real friends were. Andy will not want to
be my friend any more. Good, when I rise back,
I'll be like fuck you. - Andy will be there.
- You think so? - I think so. - Let's go to the next one.
- Andy, you owe him. - [Voiceover] Aaron Perez asks,
"En route to self-awareness, "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. Any question you want.
- Who do I ask? - The Vayner Nation
and all your fans. You get to ask a question and
YouTube comments and Facebook comments people will answer it. You're gonna get 1000 answers,
you've got a good sense of where our crossovers are, what
question do you want to ask? - I can ask you anything?
- Not me, them. - Oh shit, I wanted to ask Gary. - Go ahead, ask me
and then think about. You guys answer my
question as well. Go ahead. - The one crossover--
- Yeah? - when you look at basketball
you got a guy that's just dribbling, dribbling, dribbling
and then one day he crosses over he feels like this is mine. - Yes.
- This is mine. What was your crossover for you? What was that one, you knew? - My first baseball card show. I'm so glad you asked this. This is not something
we've ever really expanded on. I maybe told it once I'm curious
to see if you guys even know it. My first baseball card show
was in eighth grade and the Phillipsburg Mall
had a baseball card show. And I'm like
we're gonna go do it. I'm going to do my
baseball card show. And I went on Friday after
school, it was a Friday, Saturday and Sunday show. But I was still in school so
I couldn't do the Friday but I wanted to get a table for
Saturday, Sunday and I go Friday to the promoter and this
big fat guy comes out. Like 400 pound guy, right, looked like
Avalanche from WWF. Like big guy.
Tugboat, like big guy. I go are you the
promoter, he goes yeah. Can me and my friends
get a table for the show? He goes the show's started. I'm like no, no for
Saturday and Sunday. Real combative. I'm like, ugh, I'm like
four-foot-seven, 84 pounds. And I'm like no,
no, we want a table. On the drive there, this is the
punch line, on the drive there we made a pact all hands in if it's $100 or less we'll do it and if it's more
we're not doing it. Super pact, blood brothers. This is what we're gonna do. We get there, this man
goes sure it's $300. And before he said
dollars I said we'll take it. So we shake hands, we walk out
of the mall and they're just looking at me like and I was like $300 was like
(mimics explosion sound). I'm like we'll do it. I was nervous, this and that. We get in Saturday morning 7 AM
doughnuts, mall's not open yet, we're setting up, we're excited. I'm like, I can speak in
front of 8 million people, I'm not gonna feel
that energy like I felt. It was my first time, you know. And I walked that whole
mall, I walked it, I looked at everybody's tables. I memorized everybody's
prices on every card. I came back to my table and
I lowered every one of my prices a dollar cheaper than the lowest
price across the whole show on every single card and then
I hustled and by midday, by 12, 1 o'clock we were there for four
hours the mall was open we'd already made all our
money back and more. The night before my dad, who never talked to me ever,
he just worked. Just me and my dad
had no relationship. My dad came up to me, I told my
mom I was nervous and like holy shit, my dad came up to me, and
I love my pops for this, he just said it's gonna be a
great learning experience. I didn't understand. I was like what does
that mean? He's stupid. Anyway, that was it. That night I went to sleep and
I was in eighth grade and I had already been punting school
since fourth of fifth grade but that night I went to sleep and
I said I'm going to be great and that was it. And I never wavered since.
So that's me. What's your story?
What's your crossover moment? You keep asking questions,
we'll keep answering them. (hip hop music)
