#AskGaryVee Episode 26: Am I an Entrepreneur or Not?

- Don't edit that part out either because I love that the VaynerNation's gonna hear that you messed up and stopped it too soon. - [DRock] Oh, I stopped recording. - What's that, oh you didn't you have that part either. Oh, you're really killin' me. Alright, you ready? On this episode, I answer a bunch of questions but the funny part is, they're here! You keep asking questions, I'll keep trying to answer them. (upbeat hip hop music) Hey everybody this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk and you're watching Episode 26 of the #AskGaryVee Show. Fun fact about the number 26 is it's this man's best favorite number. Hey everybody, it's me, as you can tell. Different setting, I am actually in New York City on a all day event speaking with Seth Godin, Dave Ramsey at an event. (upbeat hip hop music) And so I decided to mix it up and bring people backstage in the green room with me. This room's actually green, which kind of makes it funny, and have them ask the questions so let's just get right into it, get in here. Tell the VaynerNation who you are. - Garrett Green from Nashville, Tennessee. I wanted to ask, you talk a lot about challenging

the main media source in your business. I know you brought up like, companies like creating a golf website, it takes on Golf Digest and every once in a while there's a sponsored post, and I know you've done it with CheeseRank. For smaller companies, that don't have all the resources for editors and content creators and such, what do you recommend for them or is this, you think this is kind of the next evolution that's gonna become more of a product people use? - Thanks for the question, it's a great question. Yeah I mean look, this is what I believe in and for small businesses, I recommend doing what I did in 2006, which was look, there's a difference between Buzzfeed and Seth Godin's blog right, there's a lot more content everyday, stuff, but Seth puts out his best effort once a day. For me, I did a wine show, I mean, it's what I'm doing right now, I mean. In theory, I could staff up even more than DRock and Stunwin and put out Q&A shows all day long, go the Oprah model and have people underneath me, there's a lot of ways to go. But if you believe in what I believe in which is every business is becoming a media company, all of a sudden, you're taking hours away from staffing, strategizing, selling, all the other things you're doing and you're putting one, two, three hours into becoming a media company and I do believe that has enormous upside, I mean, not much has changed for me since I viewed the world in 2009 and wrote Crush It! The only thing that's changed is, I'm even more confident I was right, because there's more of that happening. The things I wrote about in 2009, that people thought were ridiculous like, you know, a 15 year old is gonna have more people that they think are famous on YouTube than in real life, that's now happening. You know, if anybody has 15 year olds, let him in, olds in their lives. Hey Dan, you need me now? I'm taping a show, do I have time? - [Dan] No no, you're fine, I was coming to ask about this, if you wanted the guys to be a part. - Yeah, I mean, oh those guys, the guys? I will, but let me bang out this show. You know, you're not editing. So to me, I would just say, if you believe in it, and you don't have the resources, then respect your belief and put in your time and actually do it, versus all the other things you could be doing. - Awesome. - Thanks brother. Next, let's go. Tell the VaynerNation who you are. - Nathan Ruff, thenathanruff. com, I own a web design and development company called OneNine-- - Nice plugging, nice plugging. Tiger, love it, love the plug, go ahead Nate. - The question is I feel like a lot of small businesses fail because they refuse to-- - Dude, who are you asking the question of, VaynerNation or me, let's go. - Sorry. - Go ahead. - I feel like a lot of small businesses fail

because they refuse to accept what they're not good at. For example, I suck at accounting, so I have somebody do accounting for me. But I see people, you know, they suck at photography, but they're still doing their photography and it's hurting their brand. - Yeah. - They're not accepting that. - Okay. - Your thoughts on that. - Cool, thank you. I mean, you know, again, as somebody who's been following my stuff, I think we agree on this, right. Like I'm a big fan of going all in on your strengths and outsourcing or not focusing on your weaknesses. I think you got it pegged right, I think the one thing is sometimes it's obvious right, don't get caught in the obvious, meaning. It's obvious to you that you suck at accounting. It's kinda easy right, it's math. You probably also don't wanna or like doing it. That's easy. It's the thing that's in the shadows, that's not as obvious. There's something you're doing right now that a lot of people could do better than you. It's easy when you're an F at it, and you know you need an A but what about the fact that you might be doing something right now, a tiger somewhere else, where you're a B at it, but you could afford to have somebody be an A at it. That's where people make mistakes so it takes deep self-awareness, you know. I'm not a big believer in like, try, try, try harder, be better at this thing. I think it's a waste of resources, energy and happiness often. Now, if you get off on that kind of thing like perserving, knock yourself out, roll how you wanna roll but for me, big believer in betting on all your strengths and trying to find complements to your weaknesses. - How would you-- - Oh a new one for #AskGaryVee like this is cool, when they're live, they can follow up. - How would you bring up, you know, people have terrible websites, it doesn't even work on a mobile device and they're just not getting, do I just accept that okay, they're gonna get it and walk away, or how would you bring up, saying hey, you're not really good at that. - Now you're asking me a sales question, I think right? Like are you saying, to reach out to somebody and say, "Hey we should do that for you. " - No, even just like from just a help in providing value. Like hey you're not good at this, I don't think my company is the right fit but you're not good at this, I'm just telling you like-- - You know, one of the things that I do tactically is just call people out on it, right. I'll reply to them publicly on Twitter and say, "Hey, you just tweeted wrong, here's the. " You know, my classic, like everybody does this wrong on Twitter. You know, I'm not scared to, my route is simple. Polite, polite, you're not getting it, and I still care enough, which is very rare, then I'm gonna drill you in your face. Thanks man, enjoy, next let's go. I like this, I like this DRock. - Alright, my name is Nik Parks and Gary, I'm just curious, so let's say if um

you were just born to be an entrepreneur, that's just what you do and I'm sure you-- - I believe in that. - Well until you're an entrepreneur like that, you're not gonna be fulfilled. - Yes. Talking to me about my first 18 years of my life. - Yeah, so that's my question, like at what point are you being fiscally responsible and what point is it just like analysis paralysis where you think well, I can't go into full time yet, I need a full time job. - That's a tough question. Now I understand what you're saying so. Let me make sure I dissect this properly. For people like me that happened to feel that they are that and then happen to be good at it, it's easy right, 'cause it worked out. Are you asking me, if you feel like you're an entrepreneur but you're not good enough to be an entrepreneur that can sustain a lifestyle where you have to balance something else, what do you do? - Maybe-- - Or do you keep trying, or are you asking, actually I apologize 'cause now I'm recalibrating. How long can I go at it, thinking I'm an entrepreneur until I have to wake up and say wait a minute, am I tricking myself, and let me get a little more practical and jump off that train? - I mean more like, say you have a full time job and it's good pay, good benefits and all that. - If you have a full time job, you're not an entrepreneur. You have to understand, that is a very important part here. You may have entrepreneurial tendencies, you may have aspiration to be an entrepreneur but when you are an entrepreneur, you can't breathe having a job, you can't breathe. Now look, maybe I'm the extreme of it but the fact is, especially right now, especially I'm guessing at some level, this is for you, not your friend kinda thing, or it might be a friend or it might general. You're so young that you have so much less risk than the, look, when you're 18 to 29 in American today, by all standards, to me, that's your time to, if you're an entrepreneur, you're being an entrepreneur. If you're ready and willing to take a job, then you have entrepreneurial tendencies, and that's a thing you have to figure out, but to me there is no such thing as an under-30 year old entrepreneur that has a job, it doesn't exist. - Alright thanks. - Alright man, thanks. Chef get in here. You notice her from the comments section, she's always there. - Hey guys, Chef Lizette. - Alright calm down, calm down. Alright promote, promote. - Hey hey hey, Chef Lizette, @ChefLizette1.

- Alright. - Anyways, so you know, I wanna piggyback on that because you were capturing a certain demographic and age group so I wanna represent all those who are a little bit older. So I'm asking it for them, you know. - Okay. - People who already have kids, financial commitments, homes, mortgages, blah blah, so when you keep talking about how do you audit your time, how do you analyze what character traits, can you speak to the older folks, between the 30, 50-somethings, how to go out and make it happen or analyze do you really have what it takes, because at this point, these folks probably have 10+, 15 years of experience in their endeavors already. - The one thing I think, thanks Chef. The one thing that I think is interesting is, let's break down the question a little bit differently which is, there's a level of never being able to fully make it but still being in a process where you enjoy the effort to get there. This is not an all sum game, I'm okay with somebody being a nuanced entrepreneur, where there's a full time job and they're trying to make it happen. Because what happens is, you're almost talking about being an entrepreneur as a hobby there. Right, it almost takes on, this is something, and I just got goosebumps, so I'm starting to get into a new thing that I'm trying to figure out how to articulate, I'm doing it here out loud for the first time which is, when does entrepreneurship or going for it take on, morph on, whether it's very practical, 'cause you're asking for the 35-55 year old demo, or when it's, you're still under 30, in your 20s, but you've confided into or picked a job route, when is it actually in hobby land? - Exactly. - When is it, you like having your side hustle and you're enjoying it, but it doesn't need to or have to become your life and you don't have to make a billi, for you to be happy. So, what I would say is, if you're up at night and you can't breathe and you have to do your thing well then, you just might not be good enough. I mean, think about all the people we've seen on American Idol who are like, "I grew up my whole life "and I knew I was gonna be Whitney Houston. " You're all pumped and you're like, back when people watched and you're like, you can do it! And then she like, "Aaah! " and you're like no, and it's delusional, but we have that in entrepreneur land. I get emails every day, I meet people every day who are delusional about their skill set. I desperately, desperately want to be the small forward of the New York Knicks. If I truly acted on that, like if right now at 38, I'm overseas trying to be the 13th man on the bench of an Italian B-league team, that's not gonna work. It's not gonna happen no matter what I do, and so, I think the answer to your question for me, to make it as valuable for them as possible is are you willing to get comfortable in accepting that you're in hobby zone versus transitioning into that zone, and if you are, well then in a weird way, that's your question, these tie in. You can have a best of both worlds. - Right. - If you're asking me like, how to get somebody to become self-aware enough and not delusional that they're hurting themselves, that's not something I know how to really fully answer. - Cool. - Thank you. - Thanks. - Do you want to jump in on the show? I know you came in late. - Great how are you? - Wanna take a selfie real quick? - Yes, I was actually gonna ask you. - Hold on everyone, don't edit, DRock. Alright, you got it? - How's my fro? - You look amazing. - Thank you. - Oh you did it, you really know what you're doing. Love it, um, tell everybody, tell VaynerNation who you are. - Hi VaynerNation, I'm Allie DeCastro, @Ms_Allie_D on Twitter. So my question is, I'm actually really glad I'm asking it one-on-one and not in front of the audience, and now that it's being filmed. The audience is way huger so, way more huge. So I have a job that I absolutely love, I actually work for ReMax of New Jersey. You spoke for us pretty much right before I got hired so I just missed you. I love my job. I love what I do. I do social media and graphic design.

I work with SEO company. We develop content and of course I want to get into doing my own thing, doing my own blog, starting my own hustle, and I have this, and I know it stems from a fear of failure, but I have this really hard time. I get like crippled when it comes to like executing, and I know you're probably just gonna be like just do it, (beep) them, go for it, do your thing-- - You know me so well. - I just need to hear it like, I need you to look me in my face and tell me what I should do. - Do you want it? - Yes, I do. - And so literally you're just scared to fail? - Er. - I mean, if you want to go deep with me, I'll go deep. Who are you scared to fail in front of? Is it your mom? Is it your best friend? Is it your sister? That's the only thing that holds people back. Something happened to me, like everybody thinks like oh I'm so nice, look at what I'm doing right now. Truth is, I don't give a shit about anybody else's opinion so rawly that I'm never scared because if I fail and people are like, "See hahaha. " It doesn't even register. In the same way, when people are like, "You changed my life, you're the best," I'm able to be grounded, because it also doesn't. You know, I'm kind of in that middle zone, right, like not too high, not too low, which would confuse people based on my energy but I equally care about every comment in the YouTube section of this episode, I'm gonna read 'em but if somebody says, "You blow and this format stinks," and, "You should let DRock edit," that's gonna be okay. And so, if you wanna get deep with me, I know for a fact, 'cause you've already given it to me that it's the fear of failure, now the question becomes to whom. And what I would do is, and you don't have to share that with the whole world, I'd go talk to that person up front. The best practical advice I've ever given in this scenario, and it works over and over is you go and you sit down with dad and say, or Johnny, or your boyfriend, or your sister, or your girlfriend, I don't care who it is right. You sit down, you look 'em in the face and say, "I'm about to do this and the only reason "I haven't done it for the last year "is I don't want to let you down, "because entrepreneurship is a crapshoot, "and I'm not sure if I'm gonna win, "but long term I'm gonna win, "and I just need to make sure if I fail on this step, "that your response to me doesn't crush me "to never let me have a second at bat. " 'Cause that's what it is. - Okay. - Right? - Yes. - That's it. - Alright cool, thanks Gary. - You got it. Alright everybody, thank you so much for watching this little improv, show them, this looks really cool. Thanks for watching Episode 26. Question of the day. You know what, you really inspired me with that question. I don't know if the camera caught the little tearing, but that was fun for me and I was like. You know what, I'm glad, I thank you so much because that's a piece of advice I've never shared with my audience. I've shared it privately but that's why this show is like what I want. You guys are massively helping me because a lot of you, I'm over here. (laughing) You guys are helping me massive, I just want you guys to know this too because you're getting new stuff out of me because you're making me more creative by asking these things. So I'm gonna ask that. Who's that person in your life right now that you so desperately don't want to let down, that you admire and love so much that it may be holding you back from somebody, or something, excuse me. I want you to leave that in the comments because I have a funny feeling if you leave that comment, it may start the process to a very, very good thing. You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them. Oh crap, wait, subscribe! (makes video game sounds) I need the subscriptions because I can't push this many right hooks in social.