Podcast: Learn and Be Curious with Gary Vaynerchuk

On the latest episode of Hawke Media’s new podcast, HawkeTalk, CEO Erik Huberman sits down with Gary Vaynerchuk—serial investor and entrepreneur, chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia, and five-time New York Times best-selling author. Huberman says his goal with the podcast is to bring origin stories of the biggest entrepreneurs, athletes, and other celebrities to life, which is exactly what he does here in an exclusive interview.

Vaynerchuk speaks candidly to Huberman, marketer-to-marketer, about entrepreneurial success tips and about how exactly he went from an immigrant from Belarus to the indisputable King of Hustle. Here are some key takeaways from the podcast episode.

1. It’s About Passion

For Vaynerchuk, it was never about buying a bike or a Nintendo—or even the New York Jets (although he does want to buy the team!). It’s about the intrinsic motivation of being an entrepreneur and building a business that fulfills you. He doesn’t have a great story of a purchase he made once he had “made it” in the business world because he had the drive and passion simply for the chase.

2. Learn and Be Curious

From selling cards to building Wine Library into a $60 million company, to building VaynerMedia and becoming one of the world’s best content creators, there’s one stronghold through each of these stages in Vaynerchuk’s life: his ability to watch and learn from people. As a kid, he used to stand behind a table at a car show at a mall for 10 hours per day just observing people. As he was watching people, he would make adjustments to his table and where he asked for his table to be located.

3. Understand the Gray

There’s only so much that data can tell you. “The math” is only one element of the problem, and to properly leverage data and other quantitative insights, you need to understand the qualitative parts of the equation as well. How are people thinking and feeling about your branding and business?

A lot of times if you don’t understand what you’re looking at. Math can help qualify what you’re looking at, but, at the same time, it can only get you so far. If you just look at the data and don’t understand the gray, you might make poor decisions.

“Math has closed the gap and in a lot of ways has made me stronger,” Vaynerchuk says. “It reaffirms and creates pattern recognition, but people also need to understand that it also affirms bad behaviors. There are a lot of people in the marketing industry hiding behind math.”

To get more of the scoop on how Gary V.’s marketing and life lessons can apply to you and your entrepreneurial goals, check out the latest HawkeTalk episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. For additional, incredible origin stories as told by some storied individuals, download and subscribe to HawkeTalk today.

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