The Business That Hustle Built | Gary Vaynerchuk | Podcast series / Marketing

Behind the Brand with Bryan Elliott

What can I say about Gary Vaynerchuk that you haven't already heard. In my mind, Gary is, among many things, a survivor.

He was born in the former Soviet Union and escaped with his parents at a young age to suburban New Jersey where they relocated and started life over from zero.

From his own stories and my own gut sense…to say that life was rough for Gary is probably a HUGE understatement. Gary has the mentality of a street fighter and the mouth of the most rogue pirate — who is unrivaled in his a mastery of swear words.

When you see the fire in his eyes—even now these 40 years later burning just a brightly— it’s not hard to imagine him as a kid with his so-called Jersey friends being exceptionally cruel.

I’m pretty sure Gary was bullied with intensity over many years and without mercy or relief. But instead of giving up, Gary fought back...or at least waited for his moment of revenge—even though it took 30 years to get to that place.

I can picture Gary’s stoic Russian father — working in their new liquor store start up —too busy making ends meet to support or even notice the emotional damage being inflicted on his little son. And a loving mother, who Gary always holds in the highest esteem, trying her best to counter-act Gary’s brutal days at school with healthy doses of praise, positivity and gratitude for living in their new free democracy in pursuit of the American Dream.

On the outside Gary looks like a Chihuahua. But on the inside he has the heart of a lion. He brags about being lousy at school to make a point that school isn’t all it’s cracked up to be—especially when your teachers label you a "loser" who will never amount to much. Gary has been quietly hell-bent on proving them all wrong even since.

Instead of spending a ton of money on college with no ROI, he’d suggest you eat dirt and couch surf for the first seven years while you shadow your work idol and squeeze every bit of wisdom and experience from them before venturing off on your own. Whether you’re 20…30 or 50-something, Gary will remind you that you’ve got to be patient.

BECAUSE.

YOU.

HAVE.

SOOOOOOO.

MUCH.

TIME.

Following Gary’s dogma can sometimes feel like multiple contradictions OR like trying to catch a blown up balloon that’s not tied off, as it whips around thru the air spastically and ultimately lands where you don’t expect it.

I get the sense that we are all witnesses to Gary’s self-awareness transformations in real time. Daily. Sometimes via 50 pieces of content a day.

Gary Vaynerchuk is the CEO of VaynerMedia, a full-service advertising agency servicing Fortune 100 clients. He also owns women’s brand PureWow and men’s lifestyle brand ONE37pm. VaynerSports, that reps pro athletes and 20 other business ventures.

Gary is a very popular and highly paid public speaker commanding over $100k per speech…he’s a 5-time New York Times bestselling author, who has written more books than he has personally read.

He is a prolific angel investor with early investments in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, and Uber—although he will tell you that he passed on Uber twice—and this probably cost him a billion dollars.

Gary is currently the subject of DailyVee, a

Support the show