My First Million

How Gary Vee runs 7 businesses

51 min

Gary Vee reveals how he simultaneously runs seven eight-figure businesses by hiring remarkable people, using 15-minute meetings for decision-making, and treating relationships as a long-term investment. He discusses the concept of 'long-term greed,' his strategy of building family-like partnerships with former employees, and how he prioritizes human connection over transactional gain. The episode also covers his VP of Relationships role, his approach to candor in leadership, and the key businesses in his portfolio.

Summarized by Podsumo

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✨ Key Takeaways

1

Gary runs 7 active businesses doing over 8 figures each eight figures in revenue: VaynerMedia, VaynerSports, VCR Group (restaurants), VeeFriends (comics/trading cards), Wine Library, VaynerWatt (TV production), and his personal brand
2

He has a VP of Relationships who travels the world hosting dinners on his behalf with no KPI or ROI attached, discovering ways to add value to people — equivalent to LeBron spending $1Million spendingmillion on his body
3

Gary advocates for 15-minute meetings where 70% are decision-making and only 30% information-sharing, achieved through extreme efficiency and remarkable teams
4

He previously struggled with 'kind candor' — avoiding hard conversations and accumulating resentment — but now emphasizes candor delivered with kindness as essential leadership
5

His investment in Liquid Death was purely to support a former employee's venture, not because he saw the opportunity — yet it became one of his biggest wins

💬 Notable Quotes

"(Gary Vee) 'It's just a difference between short term greedy and long term greedy... when it's long term greedy, you're going to play a totally different game than short term greedy.'"
"(Gary Vee) 'Doing good things for people is literally the highest ROI and lowest risk thing... most people think it's the highest risk thing because they're not doing something good, they're doing something calculated with the expectation that something comes back.'"
"(Gary Vee) 'The reason I can do this... my superpower was the human relationship side.'"