Today's episode of the GaryVee Audio Experience is an awesome conversation I got to have with the All-In Challenge winner Jose! We sat down and talked all about Jose's upbringing and family life, growing up in Los Angeles, how he felt when he got accepted into Harvard University and the social transition it took in order to find his feet there, what he's focusing on right now, what I do at VaynerX on a daily basis, trends I see on social media and so much more!
Enjoy! Let me know what you thought!
Check out my new NFT project: veefriends.com Join the VeeFriends Discord: https://discord.gg/veefriends
Tweet Me! @garyvee Text Me! 212-931-5731 My Newsletter: garyvee.com/newsletter
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Hey everyone welcome back to the Gary Vee audio experience, I'm jacob from team Gary today. Gary sits down with the winner of the all in challenge, and they talk about everything from life to business, to family, and everything in between in Gary wants your feedback on this episode. Specifically, so make sure you tweet gary using the hashtag jose gv, that's hashtag, J, o s e g v enjoy the episode
This is the gary v audio experience.
vain relation how're, you very special episode.
The gary be audio experience. This is one that's been years in the making
as many of you remember during the beginning of coven, I got very passionate to team up with Michael Rubin from fanatics to do the all in challenge. You know I was worried about vina in my world because it was very challenging to navigate through that first batch of vulnerabilities with clients, but I knew that even if being run out of business, I'd still be okay and I needed to do good for a lot of people that were in trouble, and so I'm very honored at Michael called me- and I was a piece of the group that helped raise sixty million dollars to feed the hungry during covert with that campaign. During that campaign, I put myself up as one of the all in challenges and somebody was going to win the old ultimate gary experience and that
and that gentlemen is with me today on this. Show I'm gonna. Let him introduce himself, tell us about his life story, I'll, ask him a bunch of questions I'll. Let him ask a couple of questions. Maybe that might make sense is literally for summer meeting in person and we're going to work out together right after you said I gotta say, he's extremely extremely handsome dude
shape, and so I think he's going to crush me in the bench today like ethical film that does
but anyone who say how are you ever do great
we have to be here, I think you're. Actually, I thought it was just so fortunate that you were the person that I am when the event from just because my interests are within business.
I was like you know. Everybody else like I like lebron and other celebrities and stuff were on there. Cause like this is so applicable. I'm sure Gary's gonna have some great lessons that I'll have that. I can take away as somebody who aspires to be an entrepreneur himself, so yeah.
im going to like what you tell us. Like my head, a lot of people, you did what everybody else did right you remind you, could buy like a ticket to win the raffle rate, the average forty five or ten bucks each that yeah, and do you remember how many you bought
yeah? I just bought one once no way like one five dollar yeah area really now
yeah, that just the venal nations thinking back to when they bought like a thousand tickets yeah, you literally bought lumber yeah. I wasn't going to go crazy with Yeah
You got one five dollar entry in india, I dislike and reviling a bunch of you put him into different thing. Yes, I admit that I did that noble
chickens won't hurt my feelings array. Do you recall which, when you really one of the most,
I mean I remember, seeing I think Tom Brady was on the gas and that just as breeder, through my soul- and I was like- I told you- I don't really like the path of the patriots, but I respect Tom Brady as a guy like I like also martin weir loud he's, a buccaneer now he's endearing, whose like losing it like every year in the end of sea, and we forget about those twenty years of pain, so that yeah,
applying the law for the body
Tell us about your life. Tells you you're a kid like where'd, you grow up sure yeah, I'm from l a my family came from mexico when I was a very young kid born in mexico. Yeah, it's awesome yeah, but I grew up.
I like, though, so I don't really remember much of myself. As I came when I was three I was like ten months. Older
I really have yeah bring em,
my life has been in l, a yeah. I went to high school there and work my ass off and then I was able to go to harvard for undergrad where I studied english.
and after that I got really interested in like real estate investing partly because of all the youtube content that I would consume and I wanted to you know, get in get into that space yep, I think part of it was also fueled by, like my dad,
every immigrant has- is american dream, sardonic tonia home, yielding like a whole owning process, something yet
so that got me really interested into that back. I apologise will go back to this in the sequestration that that was a very quick glance of like I worked my ass off. I went to Harvard harvard's pretty legit
thus them when you
You worked your ass off yeah classroom or because you were first generation immigrant, like the classroom and fuckin like a job like,
sports cushion the chilling bridget balance
yeah, all of it huh yeah. So it was. I think it's hard because I think I I look back to those days were like what was the hard working was luck. Part of it was. There was some aspect of luck because my cousin yeah much luck. My cousin told me about the magnet school that I should apply to that had all the available resources for me to take advantage of, but once I had those resources, then I took a bunch of different classes, all the eighties. When was that and what grade did you go there? I started that the magnet process I think it was like I was in seventh grade, so I would have been like twelve to go to public school yeah cousins. Like hey, there's
it's magnet school yeah yeah you in educate me cause I'm a little under educated when you had to they had to accept. You are now yeah. So, basically all my neighborhood schools cause. I grew up in like sessions r ala yep, it's a pretty bad neighborhood yep schools are very underfunded yet so I
you from that early age, that I was not going to get a good education so and how much was where your parents pounding education,.
they were. There are very serious about it. I think for them not not,
crazy right now, not not overwhelming, because the reason I'm asking you as like immigrants just coming over
I have so many other things are fuckin worried about me as well. The area, certainly that, like yes, it's like education, american dream now but like to go to harvard idea like did your parent european,
the dream of that word did they know at harvard was
I knew I figured out how it was only tat great, but the reason why
they would put would push it. So much is because, firstly, wanted us to. I think these wonders have a better job than what is and what my pain
So my dad's butcher raw and my dad didn't want to see us go through. That kind of struggle is right.
Yeah, I know, and then I would say I also I have always loved learning. I've learned mom work. What did she say hold? No. My my parents made that split very early on. They realise that if my mom didn't take care of us- and she wasn't june, have like a watchful eye over us, we could get sucked into the neighbourhood, which is what a reality like you could get into that like gang life and stores.
and my mom was the one parents the same thing
I think, you're gonna look like we didn't mean. Oh queens, wasn't the prettiest place on earth where we were at the time? But you know edison was like like it was fuckin blue collar, but it wasn't gang life and like, but it was important for my mom to stay home and like we would give up on. We can take a family vacation, for example, yeah. We took to the same place this. He worldly here I hold childhood. We gave up we'll go out to dinner.
We gave up the luxuries to have that ultimate luxury yeah yeah. No, I completely agree. I think I think it was necessary, but I think
it made us stronger and I know I would I wouldn't do it any other way. If I had it, I I think there's a beauty and so that, but anyway, so once we, how hard was it to tune out the noise of the neighborhood
during highschool yeah, that was that's where it gets taoism island cliche, like story of a lot of friends I went to college,
in massachusetts, but the little
The other side of the spectrum of harvard I went to mount ida college and most of my friends grew up gang banging in high school, like good kids. To be that's why they were my friends yeah, but it the high school years, was when it was even like the most challenging it seemed yeah,
pretty good. They would talk about kids like you. If they were bad students like me, they would talk about their friends that they were upset about, that Jesus, jail, murder, fuckin. All the shit you watch on t v in the news of like that kid was like, could have easily gone to yale, but he fucking got caught up in the game. You know that cliche
How did you were you like? What enabled you to stay on? The harbor clause was at the school, but even if you don't
I can see you still in the neighborhood, no sir magnet schools. You actually get bust out of the neighborhood that I know yeah, but you were still in the neighborhood, oh yeah, when I come back, that's right exactly yeah. I would attribute that also to my dad my dad, regardless of how tired he was, he would always drive me to like events that were outside of the neighborhood that my school would put on.
so my track means my swimming meets. Might when I knew the tipp lcd all that's my dad always
hey, I'm not going to go to work, so I can take you to go. Do your thing, so it was just this one. I'd say:
It's like it is hard work on mine because I was technically taking the exams and doing all this other stuff and studying and all school come natural to you.
I yes. But I also wonder how react how that really works, because I've ever read george or an entourage of Malcolm Gladwell's book outliers, yup? Okay, so I haven't read it, but I'm very much of the thesis yeah. So I I think, since I was an early like very young,
Teachers would always tell me hey you're, smart kid keep going forward, but I also realise that that part of that was because the matter
born in january happens to also aligned to one your brain,
it's a little bit bigger than everybody else's at that age, so it means
you get a lively, positive reinforcement and its possible. That was probably
when you're that young the little delta is making a difference, it was there
got so much positively enforcement that I was a kid I'm good at it. Let me keep going on key blown going,
So are we lose your mom giving pass? Is your mom optimistic person? Yeah? Oh yeah, definite! She was she a mother that would say to you like you can do it you're the best definite,
I think she went further than that. I I remember having a very strict conversation with her in highschool when I was like hey mom, my school was getting very intense right now. I can't do my chores,
I know your and my sister's hated me because you, as happened with these other historic,
even though he just said idiotically sister, but my models like no, you don't understand, like he's, not just goofy
he's literally looking at expert studies, you always like he's a genius
It was, but he would say, like he's, studying all day long like if you, if you would do that, I would do the exact same thing for you and so your of of three so we're four. I have three hundred sisters and I love it entity oldest brother and sisters. That's cool, yeah yeah! I love them dude.
its sense of responsibility yeah, I think, a maiden mature, faster, but two
also now, like I dunno, I think, they're my closest friends they're, the people that I can trust fully toss and that's hard to find. How old are you I'm twenty five and then so? One of my suite one is twenty four, the other one is nineteen and the other is eighteen. So one just started college. That's awesome, yeah she's
but you were, the allies are back at Emily, yeah yeah, I don't know where thou art came from. I think part of it is just I I needed school that would pay for my entire decay.
Of course, and harvard was one of those places. So I was like. Ok, you shit. When you got it,
I was in public. So no, but I was I was. It was honestly like a life changing moment. I was like this. Is this feels if I felt the trajectory of my life just completely switched felt it yeah it'd just feel it. You know that life is different. Now, where else
If you get accepted to so I applied early to harvard cause, and that was it and then I was like I'm done. I studied so hard. I was like I'm good and if you like, your friends, make fun of you.
like razz, you, like, oh harbor boy, oh definitely, yeah, oh yeah. Definitely, but I dunno. I think, all of that just comes from a sense of like a vocalist, as you know, yeah, and so now, you're out of it like give me the gimme, the postmortem on the twenty five year old from the streets went through harvard for years. What do you? What do you think? I would say I think harvard's difficult. The first time you go around
at their harvard's a lot easier when you're the second generation in- and there are people at harvard who are like ten generations at worst of course, but I think the first time it's difficult, because first there are some cultural aspects that you're not really that I wasn't aware of like
I don't even know what squash was. I dunno. What rowing was, of course I didn't know what all of these cultural icon things that people connect with all those bougie sport yeah. So that was difficult for me when I first started
Later on. As you go through your first year, you create enough shared experiences that becomes a lot easier to betwixt. Make friends and stuff makes sense
earlier. I remember those big possible. I think that first month was fuckin raw. I would say the first like six months was, was talk first year yet fair because
I was. I was even weather, right, weather's, different yeah that boston bullshit weather. I also was very used to going the same as new york, but I just hate the patriots, so much go ahead. Also is just
It's always coming back home to like, with my parents
I'm in that and we didn't limit would like. We don't live in a bear very big place anyway, and I know it's like a kind of us.
it's also really nice to have noise in the house and loud yeah yeah. Whereas if you just go home by yourself, the lights are off, you turn them on. It's kind of I dunno loans in the first year was lonely. First year was tough and how about academically,
yeah. No academic was fun. I've had it. I think my school prepared me down. You have the academic that was fine. The social part was just like. It was just weird
I mean yeah. It was tough job just because we didn't have the shared experiences. I didn't get the luck of the draw of like another kind of non shared experience. He didn't get that cliche in a movie, another kid from the other side of tracks and you guys came homies. It didn't that didn't like play out now and then there's also, I think, harvard tried to connect people based off of culture. They were like hey. This is spanish.
It was parliament that our spanish kids, I think, that's I like these, where that conflict of good intent. Yes, but it's not sometimes is practical. One would think it's difficult, because
so I would notice that a lot of the east manic is from like harvard and others will are generally international, kids and those
rich kids, no, no, this europe or there are a lot more copper whip, kids from maria Zella.
like I understand where you're coming from, but it doesn't really work out that way. I actually would find what was the? What? What do you ignore? Certainly I want to hear that
find. I would find more similarities with like the pork from Indiana or like court. We would,
because we knew the same stuff, yeah. Of course yeah. I actually was going to that's where I was going. What if you had to like recap it right now what was the breakthrough socially,
yeah and, however, I would say I started playing for time.
I like indoor soccer and then I met one of my good friends who I'm actually going to go visit. We get together all the time and then he introduced me to the
of his friends. That was it and now the girl or for its yes fucking out of like the same old story, so that one kid and his friend group an epoch,
We are social, exactly yeah and then from then on the three years. After that I hadn't had a blast. It was great, that's awesome, yeah, but
I would I would do it all over again. I would, as a twenty five year old, telling that story, mrs compelling what can tell
knowing my audience. What can you tell the parent? That's the thing right now, who has the thirteen year old there more like me, scrapper first generation made it and their child is actually not entrepreneur. Academic soup
star what insight can you give to somebody useless in vienna was attentive thirteen year old, that's going down that path, and maybe wasn't there
add something I've been sites insights, since you
freshly are off that patio any hot. Take that you can say okay period
always remember there, sir
Consider this or watch out for this yeah, I'm actually a big fan of people who say that colleges and for everybody, because I completely agree.
I think the world endows or whatever you happen, to believe in luck whatever, and I think you are given a set of talents and people should harness those talents and you should lean into them. So there's some people who are very talented in academics who lean into those. But there are some people who that's not their shrink. People are very creative or people are very funny lean into those strengths. So that's what I would say don't lose hope on your kid, because of that, like little like actually take the time to listen to what the kid is good at you know it's funny that it's it's for me. It comes natural. If my kid was a comedian you're, the next Kevin Hart, if yeah, if they're you know it's actually the thing that
is worrisome for me as I get a lot of emails and dms from parents like yo gary v. What do I do like I'm, like you bro this with my fucking kids, getting straight a's, I'm like awesome, I'm like don't let them become anxious about the grades. You know, like that's one thing make sure they're happy but like like, like you know, lean into the truth to appearance ideology. We speak a lot about. The paranoia geology of like you've got to be a good student you're. Not your fucking update your kids, an entrepreneur for a lot of us ontraport
the reverse yeah, what what what are so, let's pick back up the story real estate out your tensions like where you out at this point you, yes, I
Back to ellie, I was working for a real cp firm and I was investing in multi family in industrial buildings,
I had a great time learning that, but I also wanted to figure out like I knew I wanted to start my own business. I I don't really want to work underneath anybody, and I just like that ownership that you take and that risk taking. So I apply for
this war during the pandemic. I don't know I had won the prize yet, but I got its standards grudges. Will business
and so now complete my second year there about their graduate. Hopefully I'm working on a start up with a friend of mine from some engineering school. What will see how it goes
Do you share in africa yea also by bothersome sober,
We are not. He he's the brains ease the phd involuntarily
He created a model that will give you suggestions on how to make structural and non structural improvements to buildings to make them more resistant against.
hurricanes earthquakes stand on buildings that are standing now both. So you can make even preconditions that look. I construction when its reconstruction, you can make even better improvements that one on structural and perverse postal still exist.
Looking challenge its more difficult examined, but there's no end in the are a wide debate and all those things all sir.
now we're doing. Stanford has this classical lean, launchpad and so we're conducting a bunch of interviews with industry professionals that that I know and and to ask them like which customer who would you think would be
If your customer for this yep, and so I think the final product fit exactly exactly yeah. So I think what we're imagining is creating some sort of sas tool where we can create a nice front end yet have the user putting their the database of of their building charged a monthly yeah get value did something like that before we get outta here anything you want to ask me:
yeah. I would I mean I actually have a few questions. Do I try to make this valuable for to listen to okay, fun dust? We should do random, like young, kids, okay right, like we have all these
fancy fuckers on the show is more of a journey like there was cool. I looked like them or nice thanks
So I guess the question that I was and asked us. Everybody chief. We love dust
I gotta change this trend. I started that I don't even like
when you started like Raynor x. Yes, what was the initial business idea and what were some key moments as you were starting your company, the the what happened was espaa sent me an email and said: can you come into the office and speak? We see what you're doing on this on the twitter, because then people talk back and I was like: oh hey, that's so cool and they're like they're, like
you know what your fee and was feeding her should happen, and I was like
I was like really was just like, so excited to go, dsp and and talk to them. I was like well what do you
is normally and the like. Well, you know what would you do five thousand dollars for the hour and that seem like a dream.
in dollars because, if not to say at this point in my career, I was still I built a huge business for my dad, but I wasn't making a lot of money and so like endless ninety thousand years, a lot of money, but like not compared to what I was doing it. I was thirty four and I've been doing it for twelve years. So this was a big to me and I remember I went and not only did it was called the five thousand bucks I loved. I talk for an hour about big business. It wasn't wine doing that. For twenty years,
in life, and I was- and it was just very obvious to me that- and I remember thinking like wait a minute- I'm not that I thought that I was smarter, but I definitely felt like these are like big corps,
had said he s piana like wait a minute.
You know just kind of all rushed in my head of like there's something here got out of the office in midtown europe and call dj my brother. He was a b you far from reassuring
and I was like bro cuz? We knew we wanted to start a business together and this must have been like the fall, so this was probably the beginning of his senior year in may. We had a bulls eye that we were going to start a business when he got out of school because he already knew he didn't want to go into the wine business, the liquor business, and so it was we started. We were doing things we did this like t, shirts, search engine. Please dress me and like doing all these fun things we properly
organ to fantasy sports, which probably would have been right by the way he because we were headed that trend.
But hey you know, you know this
that skill. I have you like marketing.
it should be the all this stuff. I'm like. Why don't we just start a consultancy? That's what I call that at first, not an agency and we'll get paid to learn and let's see what happens so the thesis was good.
I need to learn and figure it out yeah. Two years later, so I was still running the wine business. I just wrote, crush it the book right there on the shelf yeah that right there said. Oh, yes, and that was,
First book, which is basically hey social means no big deal right. Look, look either way
cash in on your passion. Right like like the internet, will make that the bullshit that people thought
I personally have like follow your dreams now practical, unlike it was ever before the internet yeah. That was the hypothesis. The book went, bananas spiral new york times, bestseller went bananas now, I'm speaking Gary Vee is being built. Now my wine company, I'm still running my dad's business, and now me and my brother have this company in august of two thousand and eleven, which was two years.
Two months after three, three months after we started it, I kind of just like you have this moment. Where was not sustainable anymore, and I was like I gotta do so. I was like a third a third a third and those like. I want to do one thing: ninety percent and nine percent, the other things
and I decided to go all in on vainer media with a new.
both assists, which was I'm going to build the greatest marketing company of all time as an operating system to my private equity behavior, and so, instead of doing what he does, which you know, which is by companies where they see opportunity of better management and had better margin. I'm going to buy companies where I see the opportunity to create hyper growth
intellectual property rights. Could you impact that a lot of sure I'm gonna buy one day?
by the smurfs ip one diameter by captain crunch from pepsico her one day, I'm gonna buy bubble issues from andalusia, take it out and then make everybody on Tik tok.
two by malicious quadruple, growth. Ok, because that's my skill yeah, so
that was two thousand eleven fast forward to two thousand and twenty one. After ten years of building a massive company, this entity thing comes along and I go hmm. Maybe I don't need to buy the intellectual property. Maybe I can establish the intellect
the property yeah and that's how be friends was born along the way. I started empathy wines with people that worked here so that the constellation for a substantial exit. I started razzie the restaurant app here to amex cool, now be friends. So it's working. This is the operating system for all my other behavior and, and so I think I promote that. Most people don't have, which is you know this true private equity like being smart, financially and operationally is commoditized. There are tens of thousands of people in the know. What to do. Hey, chuck e cheese not been run well, the tour will take a forward person or that you know what to do,
where the amount of people on earth that know how to leverage media uncreative on sea tv, tik tok, like the true craft and what I do for a living is very few
ones that are there, MR beast: the like building wrong trillion dollar stuff, so
I'm I'm in a nice spot in my groom young, I turned forty seven a couple weeks and I've got forty years of.
in on the field. In my opinion, yeah cause. I'm kind of one of these, I think I'll, do it until the end. So I'd like to think I live to one hundred, maybe by eighty seven I'll be like alright, maybe I'll take some.
Foot off the pedal, but there's no foot off the pedal from who I am right now for at least thirty and so thirty years of execution on the back and now we're on that is going to lead to a whole lot of ship that I probably
dream up in a lot of shit that I'm dreaming up, and so that was
hypotheses have been er, it was to get paid to learn. It was the recession was like fuck. This is the most practical thing quickly behind that build the greatest marketing company in the world as an operating system to affect the other forty meaningful businesses. I built wow, that's amazing! I guess it just as follow up what are some interesting trends you're seeing now on social?
are the tick tock invocation of everything. So now the algorithm is rewarding the content from an organ.
Standpoint that we didn't see for the last decade so six years ago, hagen
I want to build social media to build up my business great start, putting out tons of content to get followers so that you have a big enough base of followers that when you post a good amount of people, see it now, it's
make great content for the platform and the psychology.
we are trying to make it for and watch the algorithm put in front of tons and tons of people on the merit of the create open. That's a gain change
A k in plain english, if you want to start a coffee shop,
in Boston tomorrow, via your first post on tick tock,
get a million views and build your business for you over night? That was unheard of the law
when this happened was facebook fan pages in two thousand and eleven, which is why Facebook became facebook. It was always about rewarding creators with more awareness based on their creativity, not on their ad spend or ability to build a following. That was like the lightning in the bottle that would get people addicted. That's what I loved about twitter I'll, never forget when twitter, when I understood that twitter had a retweet like this day, one twitter, I'm like vitamin c post, but wait a minute. Somebody likes it, the retweet it
between wasn't there, it was people doing it. I was on twitter before the retweet bun people would see a tweet control copy it. Our put
our t call in and paste it so much work. So
like these with trends. But I've always about word of mouth awareness. You know, and so
like that, and so you know
they come. The biggest trend. Is the tick tock suffocation of social awesome? Hooker, the? Let me no one is when we have to go. I ever rubbing what you know I just for written
mike's in my lobby like flew into workers out. Oh no. I forgot awesome so bumped right, listen
I think that's good yeah. I think we've got to go work out. Yes, I think this was very real. This was good as everybody was listening. I actually need your help. You know I read twitter, the most. Can everybody just tweet? Let's
the hashtag jose
jose gb
J o s e g be used that hashtag, I think so
I don't think like jose gb ash tags, I'll find them it's ok. I know the day this is going to launch so I'll watch for the first week and leave
feedback, as I feel it mean, doesn't sense that this was a different kind of podcast. I feel different and so
She curious what you all felt cause that feedback
may give me an insight to maybe starting a series or shifting my podcast gas or making new content. Thank you, my friend,
The item acknowledge a good show. Thank you for having me I'm so excited. Let's go pumps and fucking hire. I do it.
Transcript generated on 2023-03-31.